Night is a Nara
by Foy the Snooze Button
Summary: One day, after tucking him to bed, Shikamaru's older brother, Naruto, vanished into thin air. Gone for ten years. No one knew where he went, not even the Hokage. Now he's back but where has he been all these years? To the West, of course. It's the return of the Night...an assassin from the Nara clan.
1. Chapter 1

**Yo! A new story this one is and a possible one-shot this might be.**

**A bit into this story. Naruto will be a Nara with **_**high**_** control of his bloodline. I don't want to say more or else I'll just spoil the story.**

**So enjoy.**

**I DO NOT OWN NARUTO**

**A Promise from the Night**

"_Big brother?" a timid voice called from the top of the stairs. A four year old black haired child holding a deep blue blanket in his small hands rubbed his eyes with his wrist and called again to the older boy at the bottom of the stairs, a boy that looked to be about fifteen years old with blonde hair and black tips in a deep green jounin flak jacket and dark pants. The older brother looked up and smiled fleetingly at his little brother._

"_Shika…I thought you were asleep." He stalked up the stairs and took the young boys hand._

"_There's a monster under my bed, big brother Naru." He bawled quietly and the big brother smiled sadly as he stopped and hefted the little boy into his arms._

"_No monster would get you when I'm around, Shika." He said to the child and Shikamaru settled his head in the crook of his older brother's neck, his eyes became heavy with sleep and his shoulder slumped._

"_Promise?" the child whispered and Naruto's eyes sparkled._

"_I promise."_

And the monsters never got him. He didn't see his big brother the next morning, or even for the next ten years, but the monsters never got him.

Shikamaru winced when he felt a hard slap to the back of his head and his droopy eyes looked at his female teammate, Ino Yamanaka, as she glared hotly at him.

"Were you even listening to a thing I said?"

"Yeah, something about Sasuke looking at you." He settled his head in his hands and lazily looked at her; Chouji snickered behind her as he chomped on a bag of chicken flavoured crisps.

Ino nodded and continued prattling on about her obsession with the lone Uchiha. His mind couldn't help but wonder to his older brother again, and how he seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth after that night. After waking up he ran to Naruto room to tell him about the dream he had but didn't find the older Nara there, he assumed he was on another mission and waited patiently for him to return but he never did. Their parent became worried and they began making frantic enquiries on their son, but the Sandaime had been tight lipped about the whereabouts of the genius blonde-black Nara, despite the threats the mother piled on him he remained adamant that he too didn't know where the boy was.

Two years passed with nothing and the family still searched and inquired high and low for Naruto's location.

Five years passed and the family were devastated, assuming that Naruto had gone on a long term mission and was gravely injured.

Eight years passed and they thought of the worst for their precious son. Naruto was a genius, even among his clan mates and his father trusted his capabilities but not even him could stay positive after eight years of silence. They began trying to wipe memories of Naruto from their homes and hiding them in the attic; seeing the widely smiling face of their son wasn't helping matters at all.

Ten years and Shikamaru was the only one still trying to find a trace of his brother.

The sleepy Nara hummed in tune to what his female friend was prattling on about, while his mind ran a mile a minute. When he was younger he wasn't too familiar with what his brother could do but the simple fact that he became a genin at age eight was enough for the little boy to idolize him. After digging through the library and interrogating his parents on his brother's abilities, because he only knew that Naruto was a literal force to be reckoned with, he was finally able to piece together what he assumed Naruto had been doing of the past ten years, but not where he was presently.

Naruto Nara was a ninja that highly specialized in espionage, infiltration, burglary, kidnapping and assassination. The high A rank section of the library recorded all the notable ninjas in konoha's history and after getting special permission from the Sandaime to search there for any trace of Naruto he found out that Naruto was a ninja notable enough to be recorded there, even though he was still an unranked jounin, like Jiraiya of the Sannin and Kurama Hime, the current head of the Kurama clan. Officially, Naruto was a hunter ninja but that was just a general term of his specialization, since the Nara was the only handful of his clan mates that was recognized as an assassin of the highest calibre.

To those outside of Konoha he was called **Night**.

Shikaku Nara spoke fondly of how Naruto's use of the famous _Shadow release_ bloodline was one that had never been seen before and might never be seen again. The councilman had even said that Naruto was able to attack a heavily guarded fortress and kill all occupants cleanly in broad daylight when their kekkai genkai could _mostly_ only be used at night. Yoshino, Shikamaru's mother, puffed out her chest and said that Naruto got his shadow control from her side of the family, specifically from her.

Naruto was a star at hand-to-hand combat, a quick witted ninjutsu user and an imaginative genjutsu master, a fast learner and a model shinobi to even his seniors. With all these accolades Shikamaru refused to believe his big brother had been killed on a mission. One just didn't perform more than fifty high A rank missions, according to the Hokage's record, and a dozen low to mid S rank missions with distinction and die mysteriously.

That was why Shikamaru summarized that his brother had gone on a long term mission that had been personally requested by the Fire daimyo that even the Hokage was knowledgeable to.

…and he was right.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

**Thousands of miles away**

**On the other side of The Western Wall**

**Kiratsuga**

**Capital of the Western Empire**

There were rumours that the Western Empire was rallying its forces together to take over the other half of the elemental nations. His job was to investigate on these rumours and cut down the forces that threatened the other side of the wall. He requested to do it alone, fearing that if he brought along a team with him he wouldn't be able to bear losing any of them, but the consequence of his decision was the long period away from his family.

The shadow user clenched his hand and shook the thought out of his head; this was the last part of his mission by his calculations, he needed to focus.

Everything he did, every mission he went on and every life he ended…he did for them. He wanted his family safe, and that was more important than anything.

The second part of the mission for the Night was to raise hell in the Western Empire by assassinating major figures in the society, cleaving their army in half and severing major resources from them, either by destroying them or by barring reach from them. This was all to strike fear into the empire that the Eastern side of the wall was a capable force to be reckoned with; the mission was fully sanctioned by an association of all five major countries of the East: Fire country, Water country, Wind country, Earth country and Lightning country. All the daimyos pleaded to the Night to make sure an invasion never occurred; the last thing their world needed was a full scale war on their hands. There was already the threat of the Akatsuki wreaking havoc but he entrusted his comrades to deal with them while he ended the potential western invasion before it even began. At least his family, and Konoha, were being compensated by all five countries at the same time, his contacts made sure of that.

To the Western Empire, the Night was an infamous eastern shinobi that had been crippling them since the moment he set foot on the other side of the wall. Naruto, wearing only a half face mask that hid the bottom part of his face, didn't hide his intentions for the Empire; to cease their plans of invasion.

The assassin first attacked the Mid-western region of the empire, a major producer of food for the whole empire, and effectively ended all life there. The only ones that he allowed to escape were the menial workers', the other unfortunate people had their blood soaked into the soil. After this he razed more than half of the crops to the ground and left a letter in the only intact farm house to the Emperor.

Understandably the Emperor disregarded the threat and placed a million gold coin bounty on the head of the man that called himself Night. The empire had seen more than a millennium of wars and had been unified by the emperor only ten years ago. A ninja was nothing to them.

Except they were wrong.

After hearing of the bounty on his head Naruto continued his shadow campaign; assassinating major figures and sending their heads to the Emperor, a show that there was no wall and no castle he couldn't get passed. This only resulted in his bounty being increased to a billion gold coins and a position of authority in the empires capital.

The Emperors stubborn stand lasted only a week. Naruto had attacked the war monger's residence in the dead of night, his home turf, and effectively forced the man to flee from his palace with his family in only his briefs; fighting in wars didn't encompass fighting in the pitch dark against a demon of the night. Before Naruto knew it ten years had passed and the Emperor had finally caved in and scraped all his plans for invading the east. The last part of the mission was to have a signed agreement between the Emperor and the Night that any act that went contrary to the other side of the wall would be treated as an act of war and the west would be destroyed without hesitation.

The Emperor didn't know that people of the east feared setting foot on the other side of the wall because of the stories being spread around of the sort of humans there, and to an extent the stories were true; Naruto would admit that fighting Empire soldiers was a challenge, with some of these soldiers comprising of species other than humans, and having abilities that passed what humans were meant to perform.

Naruto melted out of the shadows at the top of an abandoned building in the capital of the Empire and blankly looked at the Emperor with empty blue eyes. The Nara was in a black cloak that reached down to his shins, showing black sandals that left his toes exposed. Under the cloak, if anyone ever lived long enough to see, was a solid black long sleeved shirt and gloves with ANBU grade pants that reached the middle of his calf, and a black flak jacket. The Night had a half mask with the lower jaw of a skull painted on it and a hood thrown over his head that was pulled back enough to leave a few tufts of blonde-black hair spilling out. Heavy shadows ringed his eyes and fell down to his cheeks, showing just how tired he was but his posture negated that thought with the way he stood straight and met the glare of the Emperor without flinching; he was way past being afraid at this point.

His cloak rustled in the light wind as he began walking forward but it never blew about enough to expose his arms, or shift his hood back. The red haired Emperor, decked out in his golden armour and having a legion of warriors standing at attention behind him, stomped forward to the Night. They stopped five feet away from each other and the leader subtly began preparing to defend himself if Naruto decided that keeping his life was just a hassle. His eyes widened when he saw the Nights shadow separate from his body and shifted between them, it rose up from the ground like a small geyser and formed a sort of pedestal with a single scroll sitting on it. The man refrained from gawking; he had never seen the Night use his abilities in broad daylight, only hearing stories of what he could do, but he reached the summary that the ninja was just as strong during at night as he was during the day, if not stronger when there was darkness.

The fact that the ninja didn't lift a finger to use his ability also amazed him, but he was brought out of his thoughts when the dreaded Night spoke.

"If you don't mind, Lord Emperor." He nodded to the scroll and the pedestal of darkness shuffled to him and stopped before him. The man looked down at the scroll and carefully read what was written in it. The summary of the whole scroll was that if the West attacked the East in any way, be it physical or psychological, then Naruto would come back with an army and obliterate them.

The simple fact that he believed him was enough to make him sign the scroll.

The agreement, even though it was physical and could easily be disobeyed, was just a formality the association of daimyos wanted him to get before he could say that the mission was complete. Naruto silently regarded the Emperor before he commanded the shadow to return to him, sealing the scroll within itself as it did so. The west watched as the Night walked off the building unopposed and onto the other side of the wall.

'_Now…a few well-placed __Shadow Chain Teleportation__ and I'll be back in Konoha. I can send the agreement to the Fire daimyo from there.'_ His dull blue eyes looked to a tree and his shadow shot there, his body shimmered out of sight after it and from there the shadow pinged from one tree to another, from one stone to another, from one person to another, till he got back to Konoha, where he was greeted by the gawking faces of Izumo and Kotetsu.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

**Nara clan compound**

**Clan heads residence**

Despite moving all his pictures to the attic the Nara family, and the Nara clan, could not simply remove the memory of Naruto from their minds. People went out of their way to meet with the clan heads family and inquire how they were holding up and what they could do to help out.

Presently Yoshino Nara was quietly sobbing as she looked at pictures of her lost son from when he was a new born child to when he became a full jounin. She clutched a picture of her oldest son sleeping in his crib and cried unabashed, only because she was certain that she was the only one in the house; Shikaku was looking after the deer in the clans deer ranch and Shikamaru was spending his day off with his team, instead of usually spending it investigating the whereabouts of his big brother. She had to intimidate him to take a break from the search to have a life of his own; Naruto would have wanted that for all of them.

The Nara woman was known to be a ball of uncontrollable fire but at the moment she mourned for her son. Her heart might not be able to take much more of not knowing where Naruto was-

"I'm…I'm home!"

Her eyes bulged out of her sockets and she shot to her feet before she was even aware of it. "Naruto!?" The woman's whole body moved on autopilot as she ran headlong down the stairs and stopped just at the bottom, where her coal black eyes fell on her long lost son, who was hopping on one foot, taking off his other sandal and placing them in the family shoe rack; years away from home couldn't erase the consequence of wearing shoes inside the house. He grunted and stood up straight, leaving his hands to his side and looking away from his mother.

Yoshino lunged at him and the twenty five year old assassin could barely prepare himself in time to catch her, realizing that she wasn't taller than him anymore. The woman cried into his chest and hugged him with all the strength in her slim body. She then leaned back and looked at his face, tears filming her eyes and flowing down her pale cheeks, and _looked_ at her son; Naruto was paler and had more shadows under his eyes, his face was leaner and his hair looked even more uncontrollable. She looked down and saw that he was wearing a long black cloak but that didn't stop him from catching her in his arms. He was thinner than she remembered but also more leanly muscled, he had obviously seen thing that she would preferably keep away from him. She looked back to his face and a smile wiggled onto her face when his lips curved upwards a little. They shared a silent smile between them for a few short seconds, before she remembered that this was her child that had returned after ten years of silence.

Punches rained down on his chest and his head and the trained hunter ninja didn't bother to stop them, only lowering his head and groaning at the curses his mother spat.

"Where the hell have you been?! Why didn't you tell us you were going?! Why didn't you write?! Oh kami Naruto why are you so tall?!" he chuckled a little and the sound made a quick smile flash across her face before she forced a frown back in place. She kept punching and kicking and the son kept trying to lean away, until the frown shook and tears continued flowing from her eyes. Her attacks became weaker until they stopped with two fists to his chest and she fell onto her knees. Naruto got down to his knees and held his mother tightly, allowing her to cry to her content into his shoulder.

"I'm home." He sighed quietly and the blizzard of emotions that was Yoshino bobbed her head frantically.

"Your home."

Just then the door burst open and a gasping clan mate stopped in time before he stumbled over the forms of Naruto and Yoshino, who were having a mother-son moment by the door. The man jumped the fact that the genius of the clan had returned and shouted. "Asuma Sarutobi is in trouble, I was sent by Lady Fifth to request Lord Shikaku to aid him." all the other members of the original Ino-Shika-Cho trio were being called out to help.

"He's in the deer ranch." The woman replied and sharply looked at Naruto when he got to his feet, making sure to keep his arms hidden under his black cloak. Her eyebrows shot into her hairline at the look he sent her, the Nara messenger ran out to look for his clan head. Yoshino shook her head before Naruto could speak. "No, let your father handle it-"

"He needs help-"

"I just got you back!" she yelled, making the assassin Nara lean back slightly at her outburst. "I'm _not_ losing you again." The woman said in a lower, quieter voice as her hands gripped his cloak firmly.

The son smiled wanly at his mother and placed both of his hands on her small shoulders, her fists tightened on his cloak at the action but Naruto still said. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll be back for lunch." She didn't look like she was about to let go of him anytime soon and Naruto sighed tiredly. "I'm sorry."

Her eyes narrowed at his apology and when his shadow darted out of the open door and to another house she yelled. "Damn it-" he winced at the high pitched scream but still fizzled into nothing in her grip. "Naruto!" the almost demon yell of the woman shook the clan compound to the core. There was a small pop to her side and the sandals he kept in the shoe rack disappeared as well. "**I'll kill you, Naruto!**"

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

This wasn't how he planned on spending his day off.

Team Asuma tore towards where the distress signal had been located, where their sensei had relayed that he was in trouble and was in need of immediate assistance. Each chunin team had their own network, and were also connected to the Konoha chunin communication network, so the only ones that had gotten his signal was team Asuma and the Godaime Hokage.

The team bounced from tree to tree, silent but all worried at the state their teacher was in. The wind thrashed against them at the sheer speed and focus they were rushing at the Sarutobi, and few yards away, just as the dense thicket opened up to the magnificent sight of the Fire temple, the resident genius of the team felt a familiar presence waft passed him and his eyes caught a shadow disconnect from a tree then shoot to another tree before it bounded from the tree to a large rock.

Kakuzu removed his fist from inside a monks face and dusted his bloody hand on his cloak, turning his lazy gaze to Hidan as the Jashinist cackled loudly and slashed Asuma across the face, but the Sarutobi crossed his trench knives to block the attack and flared cutting wind chakra from his body, throwing away the frustrated priest. As Hidan landed with a thud far away from him Asuma looked down to Yugao, who was sporting a black eye and two broken arms, and pulled out the katana that Kakuzu had sheathed in her stomach; her own weapon.

"Are you ok?" he asked the off duty ANBU captain and the woman glared at him, then winced.

"What does it look like?"

He looked up when his team landed around him and Ino dutifully started healing the wounded A rank shinobi, trying her best to fix what she could and prepare her for transport back to Konoha. Asuma didn't look all to good either; he had a bad limp in his right leg where he shattered his heel bone and a burn wound that tunnelled through his thick flak jacket and scorched the side of his abdomen. He was on his last legs but his duty as a ninja forced him to keep getting up after each crushing blow and protect the Fire monks, but he had failed there.

Not that the Zombie brothers were unscathed; Kakuzu was missing his wind mask and the sleeves of his Akatsuki cloak had been torn off, while Hidan had multiple slashes on his face and body from the last wind attack, his cloak was crumbling by the seams and so was the little sanity he had left.

"Ino, I want you to get Yugao here back to Konoha, Chouji cover them and Shika, I want you to support Chouji." Asuma commanded but the Nara wasn't listening; he was staring at the rising shadow that stood three feet before them, between them and the Zombie brothers. The shadow solidified and gave the person form; a long black cloak that hid most of his body from his neck to his shins, which tempted him to think that the person had no arms, black sandals and, shock overtook him when he saw the colour of the persons head.

Blonde with black tips.

Wind tousled the person's hair and blew against the cloak but despite this Kakuzu and Hidan, the ones he was facing, could see nothing but darkness under it.

Hidan perched his triple bladed scythe on his shoulders and smirked sharply. "And who the hell are you supposed to be, tall, dark and fugly." He chortled at his own joke, given the fact that the newcomer looked more like a shadow than anything else, besides the way his pale skin starkly contrasted the darkness he exuded. The person didn't even crack a smile!

Kakuzu glowered deeply under his nose length cloak and clenched his hands at his sides into tight fists. "No idiot." The person silently looked from the laughing priest to the ruthless bounty hunter with dull, empty eyes. "That's…" he ground his teeth powerfully and raised his fists in a strong combat stance. The person raised an eyebrow and slightly cocked his head to the side in curiosity, interested on how Kakuzu could go from cocky and brutal to nervous and almost even afraid. "That's…the Night."

A corner of Naruto's lips quirked up. "Good. I'm still remembered." the smoke coming from the smouldering temple billowed high into the sky and the debris scattered around now seemed to make Kakuzu even more careful, as he eyed each and every one of them with a critical gaze. He spread his masks around him and made sure that they were ready to attack at a moment's notice, all the while Hidan looked at him, bemused and confused.

"Who the hell is 'the Night', you dick sucking heathen motherfucker?"

Naruto's blue eyes looked back to the priest and they clashed. Kakuzu shot back to the jashinist. "Have you been living under a rock?! The night is a Konoha assassin!"

"Is that all? Geez, I knew you were a piss as fag but I didn't know you were a piss ass, pussy lipped idiot that's afraid of a smut manga reading idiot!" He crowed.

"He's a Nara." Kakuzu grated. Why was Naruto not doing anything?!

"And?"

That was when Naruto finally spoke in a low voice. "I don't mean to brag but…" everyone's shadows, from the injured Yugao to the cautious Kakuzu and his masks, rippled and a darker copy of Naruto rose up and stood behind them. No one could move as the genius among geniuses of the Nara clan caught hold of all. The shadows of those behind him returned to normal and they could move again, but the Zombie brothers could not move. Clones that rose up from the larger debris and the shadows of trees around dully looked at the trapped duo and the original Naruto continued. "I now own your shadows."

Kakuzu strained his muscles to move, his veins bulged and his eyes widened in horror when the clone of the Night threw open his cloak and solid black arms shot out from the darkness, the right hand wielding a standard kunai and the other reached and grabbed hold of his left shoulder, dragging him back. The kunai sliced through his throat with clean precision. The hand withdrew back into the dark cloak, when only black threads spewed out from the neck of the frozen man, and the clone burst on fire; Kakuzu followed suit in a howling ball of rage and pain. Similarly the clones with the masks followed suit and the bounty hunter soon crumbled into nothing more than ash on the ground. Cold sweat flowed Hidan's neck at the sight of his partner quickly combusting with cold efficiency but no matter how hard he tried the clone that used to be his shadow never allowed him to move.

Another clone from a tree disconnected himself and walked over to the clone behind Kakuzu. As he approached he pulled out his arms, in his right hand was a standard issue katana blade, and when he got to Hidan's firmer shadow his hands blurred all over the shadows body, while his face was set in a neutral expression. He stopped abruptly and stepped back; the copy of him crumbled into small chunks of flesh and bone. His scythe clattered to the ground as his head finally hit the ground.

"I'll need to do something about your immortality…" the real Naruto, still standing without moving and observing as his _Hiden art: Shadow Clone technique_ converged on the ashes of Kakuzu and the disassembled body of Hidan, ignoring the vile curses that the priest poured on them. They all silently looked at each other before they began covering the ashes with an earth shifting jutsu and storing parts of the priest in different scrolls, even his scythe, and each different scroll was stored in a single scroll. The clones then instinctively began erasing the presence of the summoner in the environment before their forms warped and they fell apart into solid shadows on the ground, each one shot back to their original locations. The real Naruto allowed a small smile to come to him. "That's that, I guess." He turned around to the Konoha ninjas he had just protected and halted from approaching when he saw they were all gawking at him. "What? Have-have I got something on my face?"

Their jaws were on the ground and their eyes were bugged when Naruto turned to the side and opened his cloak, his arms came out of the black abyss of under his cloak with a mirror. He searched his face for anything that would make them stare, because as far as he knew he was an unassuming guy, and when he found none his arms returned into his cloak and he faced them again.

"He-he…he just took out two S ranks." Chouji swallowed and perspiration gathered on his face at that fact.

"And he didn't even lift a finger…" Ino added as her hands froze with glowing green chakra, hovering over the stomach wound of the fallen ANBU captain, not that the woman noticed either. Her coal black eyes stayed on the long lost Nara in pure, unfiltered shock at the display and because he had come back after ten long years in the most spectacular way possible.

Meanwhile, when Shikamaru got over the jolt of watching his assassin big brother destroy two S ranks, he was again reminded that this was his big brother who vanished into thin air for the past ten years. His body shook with fury and he got to his feet, Ino looked at him curiously and watched as he slowly approached the familiar Nara. Naruto laughed quietly, nervously, and closed his eyes.

"Now Shika…" his younger brother's expression cleaned and he resembled him when he was on a mission or a job; Shikamaru walked around his injured teacher and towards Naruto, while the older Nara brother brought out his solid black clothed arms and made a placating motion to him, pleading for him not to do something rash. "Let's not do anything crazy…"

"Ten _motherfucking years_..." Shikamaru growled under his breathe as he slowly walked to Naruto, his eyes cast in a shadow, much to similar to Naruto's battle shadows.

"Shika…let's-let's-let's all just calm down now." Naruto chuckled nervously again and began hesitantly walking backwards, his feet taking tiny steps away from his obviously infuriated brother.

"You left…for _ten whole motherfucking years_…" the irate Nara whispered, the wind took his words to Naruto and the older brother grimaced at the venom laced in the words. "No goodbye, no letter, not even a _fucking word from you __**for ten motherfucking years!**_" his unhurried walk turned into a jog, before it turned into a blur of movement as the chunin tore to his brother.

Asuma watched on with ever growing surprise that his usually sleepy, calm student was on fire with pent up rage, built from years of silence from his big brother, but his eyes grew to saucers when he saw his genius student cock his leg back. The teacher tried to reach for him but couldn't move from his weak kneeling position. "Shikamaru, no!"

Shikamaru's right leg carved a path of fire upwards with the strength of ten years old withheld emotional pain and turmoil and connected with the crotch of his older brother.

_Crunch!_

"Aiiiyeeeeeeeeeee!"

The scream of the Night echoed far and wide, and all men winced and instinctively held their crotches in pain, and turned to the general direction they felt the almighty disturbance in the universe. Back in Konoha, an angry Nara mother, who was washing the dishes in preparation for lunch, paused when the air vibrated with the pained squeal of her long lost son. A bright smile came to her and the world suddenly seemed brighter.

Her son was back and he had gotten his deserved punishment for leaving.

All was right in the world.

For now…

**Authors note**

…**oof…**

**That's it, I guess. Don't forget to tell me what you think about this story. Whether or not I should end it here or continue. If it's any good or not or if there are any ways to better how I write.**

**Check out my stories and you will most definitely find more crazy stuff.**

**How the heck did Kakuzu even know about Naruto? He isn't even ranked, that means he isn't in any bingo book. Matter of fact he isn't really even famous **_**outside**_** of Konoha as an assassin.**

**I'll list this as complete, because I've got no problem ending the story here, but if you guys want me to go one then kindly tell me in the reviews and **_**how**_** or **_**where**_** you want me to go from.**

**Well, drop a review, would you so kindly, follow me on Tumblr at **_**ghost-of-foy**_** and I will see you when I see you.**

**Foy.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Note: I'm pushing history forward a little, you'll know what I mean when you read it. and Tsunade never really left the village, she just locked herself up in the hospital and ran herself ragged with being a medic.**

CHAPTER TWO

**The Despair of the Night**

It was like all the stars in the universe, including the sun and a few stray meteors, danced and flew around before Naruto's eyes before he clasped them shut as the force of _about_ ten earth infused _enraged_ gorillas summons slammed on his crotch with enough power to elicit a scary crunching sound.

Naruto's knees knocked against themselves as Shikamaru withdrew his foot, tears filmed over his eyes and he fell onto his knees, clutching his aching pride with all both tender hands and tight protection to prevent any other attack to it, before he fell onto his side in a foetal position. Behind the heavily panting Shikamaru, his astounded teammates, sensei and ANBU captain gaped in shock; even Ino, a proud girl that was never afraid to speak her mind, held her tongue and slowly covered her precious privates with one hand while the other hovered over the slowly healing stomach wound on Yugao, who, if she could move, would also cover her crotch. They all shuddered at the shameful sobbing cries that came from the once proud assassin.

A last loud scream escaped the Nara clan heads oldest son before he passed out.

Ten minutes of fitful dreaming later and Naruto sputtered awake, realizing that he was lying on a soft bed that had deep blue and black bed sheets on it. The room he was in couldn't be described as big but it couldn't be said to be small either, it was the size of an average room for an average middle upper class to mid high class earning family. The ceiling was speckled with drawings of white stars and a bright white moon painted around the window sill that cast light into the room. He strained his eyes around and saw that the walls were at least painted in a slightly brighter shade of blue, instead of the gloomy purple, blue and black of the ceiling and furniture. There was a desk under the painted moon slash window, beside his bed, and a connecting bathroom opposite the room from the desk, beside a large wardrobe.

He tried to stand up but an invisible force kept him in place. He sighed from his aching private and looked to his right, at his desk, and said. "Dad." No need to break out of the hold just yet.

Shikaku Nara had been sitting in the room ever since Naruto had been dropped off. Not even a moment after his son had been placed on his bed he had captured him in his shadow and ordered everyone to leave, even Yoshino. The Nara clan head narrowed his eyes at his son, the room was brightly lit enough to get a good look at his dad and he closed his eyes at the age that met him from years of not knowing where he had been. Shikaku had a few grey streaks in his hair and his eyes sagged tiredly, his broad, strong shoulders sagged a little but the man still managed to stay alert throughout, even if the call for sleep was getting more and more tempting. "Naruto." He said in a monotone.

"Look, I'm sorry-"

"Do you know how worried we were? We thought you were dead." Shikaku stopped his son short of apologizing. "You made your mother cry. Do you know that?" He and Yoshino may have a unique relationship but he still loved her. He glared at Naruto to keep him from answering he almost rhetorical question. "You have five seconds to explain yourself, and if I don't like what I hear then I will not hesitate to kick you out of the clan."

"Dad-"

"One."

"The West was planning to invade our side of the wall."

The man looked at his son suspiciously; his eyes squinted and making perspiration break out on Naruto's forehead. He nodded and Naruto sighed in relief. "Why didn't you send letters back?"

"The seals the Sage of Six Paths placed on the walls stopped any form of communication; even if I sent back a messenger hawk it'll get turned to stone as soon as it flies over the walls." The twenty five year old ninja spat this entire sentence as fast as his lips could move and Shikaku had to take a few seconds to allow what Naruto had replied to sink in.

"Why didn't you tell us, your family, that you were going to be gone for a while?"

"This will take a few minutes." Naruto pleaded and Shikaku nodded curtly.

"Three minutes."

"I wanted to quickly survey what was happening in the west, just to see if there really was an invasion being planned, and I found out it was true, but when I tried to report back that the rumour was true I couldn't pass the wall the way I came in again because my body was already covered in western chakra; the wall didn't let me pass."

"Then, using that same logic, how did you get passed the wall to the west in the first place?"

"Aha, you see when I first tried to pass the wall it didn't let me because I have eastern chakra, but when I super suppressed my chakra and squeezed all of it to my heel it let me pass. Maybe because it considered the abnormal amount of chakra and the odd placement as oddities only westerners could have. I can suppress my own chakra but I can't suppress foreign chakra." He had been allowed through the wall back to the east because he had been more careful not to carry along residue of foreign chakra.

"You could have taken a small break from thwarting an invasion to see us." Shikaku pointed out, his anger seeping out of his body and thinning in the air. Naruto could see this and also felt the shadow hold slacken, but he didn't break out.

"I wanted to, I really, really did but after a few months on the mission the westerners, smart and resourceful people might I add, found the point in the wall I snuck in from and sealed it off for only them to pass, but only if they found a way to get the western chakra off them."

"How did you return then?"

"The Emperor was kind enough to allow a small hole for me to slide through." He was implying that the wall was not in the best state and the West was currently reinforcing it so that another 'Night situation' wouldn't occur again.

"So you're saying that the wall was in bad shape when you went there. Wasn't it created by the sage?"

"Yes, but more than a thousand years ago, it has to deteriorate at some point." He felt the hold on him reduce and he sat up on his bed and turned to his father, who was glaring at the ground. "I'm sorry for just running away like that. I swear it won't happen again."

The man regarded his son with stern eyes before a slow smile rose on his face and his eyes became sleepy; Naruto beamed at the usual expression he nearly always saw on his father face; he could remember days they would be tracking deer that managed to run away from the herd, but not out of the clan compound, and they would suddenly wake up from a nap, not knowing when they had even fallen asleep. When Naruto became a chunin and grew too active in the shinobi force to be napping at random times of the day, Shikaku continued the tradition with Shikamaru, while regularly playing Shogi with Naruto, and Shika. It was the lazy father's way of bonding with his children, and it worked.

"Just remember, Naruto." He grabbed his son's neck and pulled it close to his face. His eyes darkened evilly and the clan heads shadow loomed over his son like an overbearing demonic entity that had been personally sent by Yami. The man spoke in a deep, terrifying voice and Naruto's eyes widened. "**If you ever disappear again, I will track you down and strangle you with your own smaller intestine. Do you understand?**"

Naruto saluted sharply and puffed out his chest. "Crystal, sir!"

Silence reigned in the room, until-

"Bwahahaha~" father and son erupted into amused laughs, one reason was because at the fact that Shikaku was imitating his wife, and the other was that Naruto had easily caught on and tried to play along with it.

Their laughs tapered out and the unexpectedly happy father dutifully pointed out. "But seriously Naruto, if you ever do that again I'll kill you."

Naruto laugh quietly, pushing down fear at the lazy way his father had threatened to end his existence. "Well I'll take you down with me."

"That's what she said." The man shot back and the mood suddenly died. Naruto leaned away, aghast and queasy.

"I-I…I think I'm going to be sick." Just imagining his parents doing the nasty was enough to make him cringe all the way into his stomach.

"Oh stop being so dramatic. Your twenty five now right? I can talk to you about these sort of things now. We can even have a round of sake with the guys and reminisce adventures the bedroom." He threw his arm around Naruto, mildly surprised that his son was now the same height as him but was a little bit leaner. They began walking out of the room and down the stairs.

"I don't want to hear about you and moms sex life!" Naruto whispered hotly as they began approaching the living room table where a spread of sandwiches and tea could be seen.

Shikaku scoffed and waved the younger Nara's concerns away as he sat at the head of the table and Naruto sat to his left, while Yoshino took a seat to the right of her husband and Shikamaru sat beside his mother, staring at his brother with lowered eyebrows, just borderline glaring at him. "We'll be going for a few drinks this night, so you better be ready."

Naruto took a sandwich and bit into it, then another burst of stars covered his vision and he slumped in his chair. Yoshino tried to hold down her smile at the display. "This is heaven…in bread…" Naruto lolled and struggled to sit up. He threw the rest of the sandwich into his mouth and swallowed, probably without chewing either. At that moment it hit the assassin that the last time he ate was exactly last week ago and it was an apple and half a slice of orange; he shovelled the sandwiches his mother had prepared into his mouth, stuffing them like his life depended on it, while his stomach grumbled and took the food easily. His hands reached to the centre of the table and grabbed two rolls, throwing one into his cavern of a mouth and then the other, alternating between then, much to the wide eyed disgust and wonder of his family. "This is delicious." The twenty five year old man said in a very low muffle as the food he constantly cast into his mouth covered his voice.

"Honey, take it easy." Yoshino reached for the platter of bread, which was drastically reducing, but abruptly pulled her hand back when Naruto almost grabbed hold of it and prepared to lob the appendage into his hungry mouth. "Naruto!"

"Yeash." The aforementioned son replied when his mouth had now finally reached maximum capacity and he had to now actually _chew_ his food and swallow like every other normal person. His fingers itched to continue the actions of pitching sandwiches into his awaiting mouth but the blockade of bread there stopped him.

"Have some water." She poured a jug of water into his cup and watched, with the others on the table, as Naruto took a great gulp, enough to shake the table a little, and chug down the glass appreciatively. He nodded his thanks to her and sat back on his chair; the water had filled up the very last of the spaces in his stomach. "So what do you plan to do from here?"

"I was thinking of leaving active shinobi duty for a year or two to rest up." he sat up and smiled at his sulking brother, whose gloomy face might as well cast a shadow over his section of the table. He was silently pocking his lunch until he felt his brother's attention and he looked up from under his overhanging black hair. "How's being a chunin treating you, Shika?"

"…Swell" Was the slow answer. Naruto's smile wobbled weakly and he tried valiantly to keep it up.

"I bet your getting all the girls now huh." He waggled his eyebrows and the youngest Nara glared at him.

"No."

Naruto quickly put in after the one word answer. "That's ok, I can show you some moves that would definitely-"

"Can I be excused?" Shikamaru pushed away from the table and stood up. Shikaku, who had been observing the association between siblings, felt his heart sink at the cold answers his youngest born was giving. Once upon a time Naruto was little Shikamaru's world; the boy would even wait at the front door to welcome his brother first from a mission and would sometimes be the first to see Naruto in his room just to animatedly tell him one of his dreams. The analytical man could still see the little boy trapped behind the cold eyes of his youngest son but that boy was too angry at Naruto to even want to look at him.

"Where do you want to go?" the broad shouldered man asked.

"To Suzu's place." he answered and walked to the door. The name of the Kyuubi jinchuriki rang a bell in Naruto's mind and he made to stand as well.

"I'll come with you." It wasn't that he didn't trust the girl; he knew her parents and their student's very well and he trusted the Yondaime's seal work, it was that he wanted to do everything in his power to fix what he had with his brother.

"Don't bother." Shika shot back without looking and slammed the door shut; he needed to clear his head and Suzuyi Uzumaki's place was a great place he could think. The single harsh answer sat the older brother down and his heart fell with the motion.

The couple looked at their quiet son, then shared a nervous glance between themselves. Naruto's eyes dropped and the shadows that were already there, ringed around his eyes and falling down to his cheeks, made him look even more tired and more regretful of his decision. The adult son of the clan heads family placed his elbows on the table and clasped his fingers over his plate. "Naruto." Yoshino said quietly and gently laid her hands on his own, having to sit forward a little to do so. The boy didn't give any sign that he had heard her, but she still smiled sadly. "You need to give him some time; he has been looking for you since the day you…left." The younger Nara felt his spirits lower, until his mother slightly tightened her hands over his to give them a sort of warmth. "How about you go and say hi to your friends, it _has_ been a while, hasn't it?" the younger Nara subconsciously felt his thumbs rub the back of the older woman's hand. He sat up and sent his parents a brave smile.

"Thanks, I will."

"Don't forget. Give Shika his space; when he's ready to hear you out then he will meet you himself." Shikaku patted his sons left shoulder and Naruto nodded resolutely.

"Of course." He stood up and bowed to both of them. "Thank you for forgiving me, dad, mom."

The couple then realized just how old and weathered they might have looked to their son; they both had streaks of grey in their formerly pitch black hair and there were light wrinkles on their faces. They might look good for a couple in their mid-forties but waiting for their son to return home had driven years away from them. They gave their son encouraging smiles. "Just don't mess it up." his father said and his wife nodded in agreement.

Naruto beamed and rushed to the door, as he put on his sandals he called to his mother and said. "Do you want me to get you anything from the store? I have some money with me." 'Some money' was a big understatement; he had stolen gold from the every western figure in his hit list, all he had to do was go to the Central Bank of Konoha and convert the gold coins to ryu and store them into his bank account. The gold was pure so he didn't have to worry too much on whether or not the bank would accept it.

"We're out of cereal and sugar." She called back to him. "Any kind of cereal is fine, as long as it's not expired."

"I'll be back for dinner!" the unranked jounin shouted and closed the door behind him, after making sure that his cloak was securely on, the first place on his mind to go was to see the Godaime Hokage.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

**Blue Swirling Leaf Café**

**Konoha**

The Blue Swirling Leaf café was the brain child of Uzumaki Suzuyi, Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata and Yamanaka Ino. It was a place where both shinobi and civilians could come and relax to good tea, great service and were also able to get breakfast and lunch if they wanted. It was a hotspot of activity for the village because three clan heirs and the jinchuriki of the nine tailed fox had come together after the Sand/Sound invasion and Suzuyi proposed the idea of the café as a place the Konoha nine and team Gai, as well as any other person, could go to relax after a hard day or in expectation of a hectic day.

The café was built in a cleared out section of the forest that had been bought by the Uzumaki from her inheritance money and construction was simple enough with Shino handling the planning and Hinata and Ino handling the promotion of the café, even before it was built and the other genin. They didn't need to employ help because Suzuyi, commonly called Suzu by her friends, was able to make hundreds of capable Shadow Clones, while Shino pointed out where they were to work and what they were to do. The place was referred to as 'Suzu's Place' because it was Suzu that had first pitched the idea, and the other three wanted to give her credit. If one was to say that the café was large, it was also like saying that the sky was blue and that fire was hot; the building itself was a single storey building the same size as two residential buildings in the 'Rich District', and there were also chairs and tables laid out outside the café for those that preferred natural light, though direct sunlight was shaded by large umbrellas. The place was manned by a few Konoha genin that wanted to pitch in for their friends because Suzu shadow clones could only do so much without horrible backlash to the user, while Shino was still considered the manager slash accountant, Ino was the interior and exterior decorator, Hinata was the cook and Suzuyi was in charge of general maintenance and security of the place.

A position the girl was very proud of.

The café was initially patronized by friends and students of Suzu's parents and more than a few genin and chunin but after even more promotion from Ino and Hinata the place was nearly always busy with people; it was easy to overlook that the Kyuubi holder was among the founders of the café as long as service was good and the food was great.

Another reason the café was sometimes called Suzu's place was because the jinchuriki stayed in an apartment close to the café.

"Shika! How's it going!" the excitable blonde jinchuriki said in a loud voice over the din of the customers from behind the counter inside the café; the place was busy with murmuring customers chatting amongst themselves and enjoying the air conditioner. It was the season that tea was not too well purchased but ice cream and Hinata had had the foresight to prepare home-made ice cream a month in advance. Suzu's expression took a slight dip when she saw the sad gaze her friend sent her and she ushered the Nara closer and sat him down on a free table behind the counter, a place only the Konoha eleven and team Gai were allowed to sit down. She rushed to the kitchen and brought back a bowl of light blue and white ice cream that swirled like a whirlpool to the centre with a plastic spoon for the chunin. She waved her hand nonchalantly and took a seat opposite him. "It's on the house." He gave an appreciative look and watched as Hinata came out from the kitchen and sat with them; there weren't any new customers to worry about. The low murmur never penetrated the small table behind the counter.

"What's wrong?" the ever so timid Hinata asked. The Hyuuga was getting more and more confident from having her cooking and baking skills praised by anyone that came by the café but the constant problem of her father putting her down slowed any progress.

"My big brother is back." He muttered into his bowl of ice cream and scooped a few spoons. There was a short hush from the two females, one genin and the other a chunin, before understanding dawned on them.

"You mean your Night guy brother? Naruto, was it?"

Shikamaru nodded to Suzu's question. The blonde girl might not have been seen as smart from a lot of people but those in her circle of friends knew that she was a very good listener and very good at picking up subtle signs from people and from the environment, a perk from being a strong sensor. If she was on duty she would be seen wearing a combat kimono with deep blue tights and black sandals; her weapon of choice was a single edged deep red and black blade that was sheathed over her shoulder. Off duty she preferred wearing shorts that barely passed her mid-thigh and a white mid riff shirt, sometimes she had on a tight black shirt when she felt like it or the light blue employees' shirt of the Blue Spiralling Leaf Café. The way she dressed made people assume that she was very dull but the truth was that she and Sakura Haruno had to share Kunoichi of the year on their graduation and the Uzumaki had thought of various ways to improve the café, even if it wasn't among her responsibilities. She was much smarter than people gave her credit for, thankfully the girl, although a very loud and open girl, was hesitant to take credit for anything; her façade would crumble and she would blush shyly when her friends insisted that she take recognition.

"Then what are you doing here, genius? Go hang out with him!" she exclaimed but cooled down when Shikamaru frowned into his bowl. Hinata lightly kicked her leg and the Uzumaki closed her mouth.

"What's wrong?"

And the youngest Nara confided in his friends.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

**The Hokage's office**

**Hokage's tower**

**Konoha**

Naruto stopped in front of the door to the Godaime's office and he ran his fingers through his hair, made sure his black cloak was straight and checked the mirror if there was anything on his face before he knocked.

"Yes?" was the muffled grunt from inside.

He pushed open the door with his foot and walked in, his bright blue eyes sparkling as they laid on the fifth leader of the leaf village. The ever so suicidal Tsunade Senju.

A corner of her lips lifted and she raised an eyebrow at him, waving her hand for her guards to leave the room. "So you're not dead." She regarded him with a not so discreet flick of her eyes. From his black sandals to his black cape, to his moon pale face, the shadows around his eyes and his ever so messy blonde-black hair. She had to admit; he had grown up; from a little thirteen year old weed that constantly kept asking her out to an even bigger weed that stared back at her with what he had come to call his 'Pasty Face'. An expression he saved only when he was facing off against an opponent he intended to throw off or to an ally he wanted to impress. She had to admit, he was impressive.

"Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated." He said and swept into the room, not before kicking the door closed with his heel. He took a seat before her desk and she raised an eyebrow when the cape melted off his body and merged with his shadow; she had to ask him about that later.

She dropped her pen and sat back in her chair. "So where have you been, brat? I was worried sick."

The assassin ran his fingers through his hair again and cocked an eyebrow up in a cringe worthy attempt at looking coy. "I was looking for the meaning of love, my fair lady."

The Senju felt a vein throb on her forehead but she pushed down the frustration. "This is no time for jokes. The village has been in dire need of your peculiar abilities."

Naruto shushed her and a twitch of her eyebrow was added to the throb on her forehead. "There's no need to lie, my lady. I know you missed me, let's just cut to the chase. Yes, I will go out with you, yes, I will handle the dinner reservation, yes I can come and pick you up and maybe we can have a little extra after everything is done." He ended it with a waggle of his eyebrows and the image threw the woman back to when the now legal age, twenty five year old man was a teen. Back then, after sadly reporting to Tsunade that her lover Dan had been killed on the front lines on a poorly ranked mission, he began being terribly forward with his intentions to date her. It was as if Dan had trusted Naruto to look after Tsunade and the young, teenage assassin had thought that what it meant to replace him as her lover. Since then he had tried everything in his power to bed the Sannin, but all was in vain.

The Godaime clenched her eyes shut and her fists tightened on her desk as another vein pulsed on her forehead. Naruto remained calm even as her whole body shook, until it all stopped abruptly and she smiled at him. "Of course, but don't worry about picking me up, I'll meet you there." The man tried his possible best to overlook he mischievous glint in her eyes but his traitorous mouth wouldn't allow him to voice his thoughts.

The Nara was so taken aback that he unknowingly stood up from his seat and sat back down. His mouth dropped and the woman's smile stretched even wider. "U-U-U-Uhm…y-yeah! The-the uh Flower Gail restaurant…tomorrow…?"

"It's a date." She said and leaned forward, perching her elbows on her desk and her head on her interweaved fingers. "But-"

"BUT!" he said with her, still trying to comprehend how two years of vying for her attention; he didn't want to count the ten years he was gone, and now she had finally accepted to go out on a date with him!

Her thin fingers drew small, light circles on her documents and she bashfully looked down. "But…there's something I want you to do first."

"Anything-I mean…yea?" he said in a deep voice.

"I need you to go on this high S rank mission-"

That was what snapped him out of his surprised daze. "Let me stop you there. I actually came here to formally tell you that I'll be going on a two year break from duty."

The woman immediately dropped her shy façade. "What?"

"I said I want to stop active duty for two years, I think I deserve it; just ask Lord Daimyo."

"What do you mean 'ask Lord Daimyo'? I'm your commanding officer! He doesn't have control over my own shinobi." She said in outrage, even smashing her fist down on the seal reinforced desk.

"Unless it is a matter of grave importance the Fire Daimyo can ask a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf without consent of the Hokage to perform a mission." He recited word for word from the villages founding charter with the daimyos ancestors. This floored the Hokage because she knew it was true. Naruto smiled sadly at her. "He asked me to go on a secret mission to the Western Empire to stop their plans of invasion. It was a secret because if word ever got out that a super power like the Empire wanted to invade us then the east would be thrown into mass hysteria."

'_-And the Akatsuki would pick off the jinchuriki when they surfaced in the chaos.'_ She filled-in in her mind. The S rank organisation had appeared only two years ago after they had attempted to kidnap the nine tails from training ground three during one of her personal training sessions with Yugao. Itachi had dispatched the captain with a powerful illusion and Kisame had drained the girl of all her chakra, but if not for when an academy student saw this happen and flee to tell a passing jounin the village would have lost the nine tails for good. She looked at the quiet Nara and said. "I know this is not the best time but-"

"Lady Tsunade-" he cut her off and slowly rose to his feet, his shadow crept up his body and covered his torso with his pitch black cape. "I'm sorry for this but I made the mistake of leaving for ten years, I won't make it again." He made to leave but stopped with his back turned when the Hokage shot to her feet.

"Naruto! As your commanding officer I _order_ you to take this mission." The assassin tilted his head down and a small smile crept up his face. His left arm snaked out from his cape and he held it out to his side, in it was his shiny forehead protector.

"You know what happens once I drop this, Lady Tsunade." He permanently retires from the ninja force and becomes a civilian. It was something the assassin didn't mind but it was something the Hokage would regret if it ever happened. Naruto could be considered to be a modest guy, but even he saw that retiring forever would be a setback for Konoha.

"Please don't do this, Naruto."

"Don't make me do it, Lady Tsunade."

The air was tense but Naruto never looked over his shoulder to the woman. Until he heard her sit back in her chair in a huff and sigh. "I'm going to be straight with you Naruto." The younger ninja didn't return his hand to his cloak or let go of the forehead protector. He just stood in place and listened to her speak. "Jiraiya just left her for a mission to Rain and _something_ in me is telling me that he won't come back. Naruto, _please_, I'm _begging_ you, not as your Hokage but as your friend, _please_ shadow him and make sure he comes back."

The Nara kept his eyes on the ground but a sad smirk was on his face. "…why me? Why not Gai or Kureanai or Anko or Kakashi? Why does it have to be me?"

"Because you're the only one I trust to get this job done, Naruto." The assassin pursed his lips tightly and pulled his forehead protector back into his cloak. The woman continued speaking. "There is this rogue S rank organisation called the Akatsuki that have been gathering tailed beasts since you left. They now have the one to four tails and my hunters, _your_ comrades, have reported that the six and seven tails jinchuriki have disappeared. They tried to take Suzu and would have succeeded if not for sensei. No one knows why they are doing what they are doing but nothing good comes from doing it." She could see as the Nara's shoulders slumped tiredly and her face couldn't convey the amount of turmoil that she felt he was going through at the moment. "I'm sorry Naruto…but I can't let you go just yet."

Naruto remained silent for a few, long minutes and before he said. "My mission is just to shadow Jiraiya. Nothing else?"

"And to eliminate any Akatsuki member that you come across, like you did with Kakuzu and Hidan." She could see him waver in place. She clasped her hands together and bowed her head close to her table as a sign of resignation. "Please Naruto."

"Ugh." The man groaned and turned to the bowing woman. "Why do I keep getting myself dragged into these sort of things? Fine, I'll go on this mission but this would be the last time, you hear?"

"Thank you." She breathed with as much gratitude as her voice could convey. The reports said that he had been able to disengage a small portion of his shadow to influence every other shadow in the immediate vicinity when he had met Kakuzu and Hidan. Yugao and Asuma had been keen enough to see when he did it, quicker than when he was younger, they made sure to add. It was an ability that was invaluable to the shinobi force and it was the reason Naruto had insisted to remain as an unranked jounin. There was also his bloodline ability to merge with shadows of any kind and use it to move with speeds far surpassing most ninjas.

Then there was his cloak.

**Authors note**

**Are you not entertained?!**

**That's it for this chapter then. Stay tuned to see what's so special about his cloak.**

**As always kindly leave a review on what you think of the story so far, follow me on Tumblr at **_**ghost-of-foy**_** and I will see you when I see you.**

**Foy.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I didn't know whether or not to update this one or my ****Made in Kiri**** but I decided on this one. Just to put this out there about ****Made in Kiri****; Naruto won't show up until chapter three and YES there's a reason he did what he did.**

**Enjoy the story**

CHAPTER THREE

**Terror of the Night**

**Ameagakure no Sato**

A pair of eyes as blue and as bright as a clear sky opened from the side of a brick building, directly over the shadow a taller building cast on it. The eyes narrowed slightly at their target, a tall man with shaggy white hair. The eyes looked at the poor state of the person; his clothes were singed and slashed and the two toads on his shoulders didn't seem to be worse off either. The toad sage clasped his hands together and spat out a ball of fire to the six paths of pain, even the chakra rain that poured on the village couldn't stifle the smouldering ball of flames as it tunnelled towards their targets.

The eyes closed and in the mind of the assassin the words echoed.

_Shadow him and make sure he comes back_

He sighed and muttered. "Sure." And he wrenched control of all the shadows of the six paths and winced only a little as the sage mode fire ball bathed all six of the paths. Since he was in control of their shadows then that meant that he was also in control of them; he could feel what they felt and that encompassed feeling pain.

Jiraiya's eyes widened in surprise that his attack had actually connected without the paths retaliating in any way. The toads on his shoulders shared his shock as they beheld the bonfire that crackled in the rain at the very centre of the village, where the houses had been flattened by numerous other attacks. The man slumped forward and panted for air, his eyes flicking around at whether or not it had been a trick.

His senses warned him of an attack and he dove out of the way of a sharp, flat and flexible metal tail that jutted out of the ground abruptly with intentions of cutting him in half. A three faced head broke out of the ground and grinned at him evilly. The ground groaned and Jiraiya just barely leaped upwards as the earth under his feet opened, showing a mighty maw large enough to easily swallow his chief toad summon. He felt a great force slam into his back and blasted him far away from the village to the very edge, where a cliff overlooking the sea waited for him. He landed on his feet and skidded back, throwing up sand and stones but not far enough to push him off the cliff and into the water. The four armed machine path sped at him again and the toad sage got into a strong _Toad Fist_ taijutsu stance and waited patiently for the deformed path to come to him. The path ducked his head down and his serrated tail curved over his head and towards its target, but before the white haired sage could bat the tail away and breathe more fire onto the path the tail froze in the air.

The path's eyes enlarged as two of its four arms fell onto the ground and burst on fire, summarily turning into ash. Inside the shadow, the real Naruto continuously powered through a cycle of handseals, ten seals that started over and over again after he was finished. His cloak was gone, leaving only his pale face to shine inside the pitch darkness of the shadow of the path, so deep inside that no one would have seen him. Perspiration broke out on his forehead at the amount of concentration he had to expend to do what he was doing; the path was a violent one that had more muscle mass than him and by controlling his body, and also breaking it apart with fire, he had to constantly channel chakra to overpower the beastly path.

But the rinnegan was not a weak doujutsu, not by a long shot.

Two more arms fell down onto the ground and disintegrated into ash, leaving the path armless and confused at its inability to move. Jiraiya shook off his own confusion and clenched his fists, before he slammed them both on the tip of the tail.

_Crack!_

The iron tail fracture from the tip to close to the middle, then the rest of the tail fell as well and turned into ash. Naruto grunted under his breathe and continued flowing through handseals, even as he felt all the _Hiden art: Shadow Clones_ get destroyed by only one path, after the rest had been dealt with seeing as they weighed and had the average body strength of every other person, the problem only being that their connected doujutsu made it harder for him to cut them up and burn their bodies before they could revive. There was a great yanking force and he was forcefully dragged out of the second to last paths shadow by the back of his neck, the simple question of how the rinnegan holder was able to pull him out of the shadow lost to him. The assassin spun around to face the invisible force was taking him to in mid-air, making sure that his cloak of darkness was on securely before he opened his arms, throwing open the cloak but only for the path to see pure darkness, and more than a hundred vaguely human shaped shadows poured out and converged on the wide eyed path.

Although the assassin didn't give the cloak any special, ground trembling name, unlike his 'Pasty Face', what was contained in the cloak, when the Nara allowed it to open for all the world to see, was the accumulation of darkness and shadows that went so deep and was so strong that Naruto had to draw a summoning contract just to keep a firm hold on it all. He called the darkness in his cloak his 'Night Dimension'. Ever since he had been a child and found out that his shadow manipulation was very much different from that of his clan mates he wondered whether or not he could not only change the form of his opponents shadows to his own form, hence the jutsu _Hiden art: Shadow clone technique_, but to also be able to take their shadows from them and utilize this by himself. He experimented on this all through his chunin days by taking control of shadows and ripping them off their former owner's bodies; this not only disintegrated the shadows but also carved out a chunk of his chakra painfully. His next option was to take the shadows from his dead victims' corpses, and this was widely successful. As he became jounin he began using his own shadow to store the other shadows, with his own being a sort of warden and the other shadows being prisoners, but after reaching a hundred different shadows stored by his own shadow it became a struggle to hold them all at once.

That was why he came up with the idea of storing all his stolen shadows in a cloak and freeing him from personally ensuring hold on them. Formerly he had been using a special kind of seal to hold the shadows in his cloak but after reaching the five hundred limit he had to devise another way to store shadows or else he had to stop completely, and stopping his collection of victims shadows was not in Naruto's vocabulary so he spent the better part of a month writing and creating his own summoning dimension, which was a super sophisticated version of a storage seal called the _Infinity_ _seal_.

There was no limit to the shadows he could imprison there.

Just like Kakashi was able to perform a thousand jutsu and more, Naruto was the owner of over a thousand souls. The only difference being that no one, not even the Hokage, knew about it.

That was why Pein was stunned when the shadows that surged to him became slightly more corporal and stood on the ground like any normal creature. Their faces couldn't be discerned but their numbers almost over whelmed the rinnegan holder. His eyes pulsed and repelled them before they could reach him. Naruto threw open his cloak again, looking more like a bat spreading its wings to fly, and the dark creatures he had summoned returned to him. As his feet touched down he again melted into the small darkness beside an upturned rock before Jiraiya could look up after burning the second-to-last path up.

His mission was to be Jiraiya's shadow; he wasn't to be seen or noticed by Jiraiya.

The Toad sage used Pein's hesitation and ran forward. The master and former student engaged in a fast paced taijutsu fight, one using sheer muscle strength and the other making full use of flexibility and foresight his doujutsu allowed him. Jiraiya thrust two fists to his face and Pein stepped back and slapped both of them away with the back of his palms, stepping on the sage's stomach and pivoting on the heel planted in the master's stomach to deliver a fatal kick to the side of his face. The blow connected but the experienced fighter used it to flip to the side once and shoot back, driving his right elbow through the diaphragm of the path. The path drove his left knee up, wheezing and his eyes pulsing to keep up with his former teacher, and barely clipped the man's arm. The red head slid under a chop to his neck, batted away a kick and flashed three concise punches to the man's stomach, chest and finally his jaw, which lifted Jiraiya clear off his. As the dazed and incredibly tired man was coming down to earth the path got into a rigid ready stance, his right leg twitched and his eyes narrowed, power flashing through them like lightning crossing the sky. His leg shot up, coated with chakra and on a war path to cleave off the falling sages head but before the finishing blow could connect the path felt a small force push him backwards. The toad sage was snapped out of his daze as soon as his feet hit the ground and his fist summarily smashed into the paths surprised face, in shock that all bodily movements have left him.

His limp body flew through the air, he could even feel a few teeth dislodge from his mouth, and he crashed head first into a block of stone that had been raised when Jiraiya had first crash landed. The path stubbornly got to his feet and the very centre of his head bled profusely but his gaze was not on his primary opponent but on the force that had destroyed all other five of the paths. He bent down abruptly and jammed his fist into his own shadow, dragging Naruto out by his blonde-black hair and driving his knee into the unprotected belly of the assassin, who burst into chakra smoke after the attack. So fast was the motion that Jiraiya, who was woozy from overusing sage mode to heal himself and exerted from fighting for so long, doubted what he had seen.

The fight had already been more than an hour in when Naruto had pushed through the rain barrier of the Rain village, only to walk in on the toad sage and six red heads tearing apart the village as they fought.

The path wasn't able to stay on the matter that the Night was now the culprit from killing off his other paths because Jiraiya, after bobbing his head to the bolstering of the two toad elders on his shoulders ran at Pein. The red head lifted his arms and moved them in complex motions; the earth around him trembled and shook with each movement until it the area close to the cliff broke apart into solid rectangular rocks, each one spinning around the path, even as the sage kept pelting towards him tirelessly. The rinnegan holder kicked two blocks away from him and propelled them further with his gravitational control, more blocks followed suit and Jiraiya was forced to flip and leap over them, but even as he did so they circled around and came back. As the path manipulated the rocks to crush his target his eyes zeroed back down to his shadow and he spat.

"_Blood seeking missiles."_

His rinnegan glowed with power and above his head exactly a hundred warheads as large as a new born baby swirled into sight, painted red and the tips regularly beeping from white to purple. Inside the shadow of the path Naruto gulped and suppressed a yelp as he dove deeper into the shadow as the missiles poured in after him, using his newly summoned cloak to slow his descent down by opening his arms and his cape suddenly becoming more rigid, like the wings of any bird.

No one knew this but inside the shadows of every individual were echoes of their past, starting from the house, or area, they were born in and ending to their current situation in a few hours. Faces were vague but still mostly clear. These memories couldn't touch Naruto and he couldn't even hear their painful moans. It could have been a good interrogation technique if not for the problem of wading through tormented memories; Naruto goes through enough daily, he didn't want to lose his soul even more than he already had.

Usually when a Nara was to manipulate a targets shadow it was just to control the surface, but Naruto went deeper and was able to control the entire shadow, even the hidden parts. This wasn't to say that Naruto wasn't able to stretch his own shadow, instead of disconnecting it completely, to control an opponent. It was much more in tune to his profession as an assassin if he was able to delve into the shadow of a target, to spy, kill them or turn them into his puppets through shadow control. There was even a visible bubble that separated the surface shadow to the hidden shadow, which was where Naruto stood on to control the path.

The assassin flew across the sky, dodging and kicking away missiles, which struck and exploded on the barrier over the echoed memories. The barrier didn't budge, probably because the doujutsu prevented any harm from reaching his memories, i.e. his psyche. Even though he had been able to manoeuvre away from more than a few and had them explode either against themselves or on the barrier there was still more than a dozen that flew after him. His mind raced for what to do as he felt the fight between Pein and Jiraiya was slowly creeping to the formers favour, his bright blue eyes clicked with an idea and he abruptly spun around, facing the incoming missiles with his cloak-like wings wide open but still hiding his body in darkness.

"_Hiden art: Eternal Marching Band of the Nara Clan."_ He said in a deep voice and shadows in the shape of thick black circles burst out from the abyss of darkness that shrouded his body. The circles impacted against the missiles and the assassin never stopped the onslaught of attacks. He stopped his counter attack and flew straight up, towards the light that was dimmed by the perpetual rain that fell over the hidden village. The assassin squinted his eyes, perfectly aware of the ten or so missiles that honed after him.

Pein's eyes bulged when the dark form of the Night erupted straight out of his shadow like a bat out of hell, just as a block of stone broke against the sages face and knocked him hard against another incoming rock. The Nara made sure his face was still neutral but he couldn't hold down the small upward curve of a corner of his lips as he felt the tip of the missile lightly brush against his back. His body fell back into the shadow of the rinnegan holder and as his feet touched down on the dome separation he slapped his hands together into the _Rat_ handseal.

"_Hiden art: Shadow Imitation technique."_

The body of the doujutsu holder froze up but his eyes watched on in horror as the split second speed of the assassin fazing back into the shadow allowed his own missiles to come back to him, too close to change direction and too unexpected for Pein to reabsorb them back into his body.

_B-B-Bo-Bo-B-B-Boom!_

Naruto hastily dove from one shadow to another away from the blast, his cloak billowing around him as he surged and pinged from place to place until he reached Jiraiya, who was trying his best to rub out the blood pouring over his eyes. The Nara wrested control of the sages shadow to him and mechanically controlled the man to run away from the billowing fire and the shockwaves that rumbled outwards from the very place Pein had received nothing less than ten _Blood Seeking Missiles_.

"What the hell?!" the man yelled as his feet automatically moved away from the explosions. Both he and Naruto looked up through the thick stack of smoke that swirled around the area the path had been bombarded when they heard low pitched whistling sounds. Naruto released his hold and the sage instinctively flowed through a short set of seals. _"Earth style: Mud wall!"_ he slammed his hands on the ground and a wall of earth rose up quickly, just in time to defend against the array of paper bombs and shards that had seemingly been sent from heaven.

Naruto's eyes squinted through the toad summoners shadow, a pair of blue eyes that the man couldn't notice because they were at the base of his feet, and the assassin hissed lowly and muttered. "Why don't these people just die?" he was already feeling the effects of using multiple jutsu simultaneously and continuously. His reserves might have been a bit higher than normal but even he had his limits. A large drop of sweat rolled down the side of his face and he closed his eyes as Jiraiya looked down sharply, opening them again when the mud wall broke apart and more shards of paper bombs flew through.

It would have been much easier if he wasn't trying to hide his presence from the toad sage; fighting in the dark was his specialty but fighting in the open also had its perks.

The assassin crossed his arms and flowed away from his targets shadow, zipping down a different path and the paper jutsu followed after him, leaving behind the confused sage as he watched the assault of paper shuriken bombs spin through the air and blast on the ground as it tried to follow an invisible moving object. This made him Naruto wonder; how was the new comer, who was still yet to be seen, able to know where he was. His _Shadow Chain Teleportation_ was very untraceable, that was why he used it the most. The ninja shook the question out of his mind; it was probably the rinnegan user feeding the paper user information through a headset or something. That brought up another question.

The red heads he had killed were all corpses. He had checked when he controlled their shadows, made them into his clones and slide a kunai through their jugulars but the blood that came out did nothing to slow them down, leaving only either incineration by fire or fatal acupuncture by wind. He didn't need to look to know that as the fire and smoke from the multiple war heads got dampened by the rain falling down from the heavens there was only a pair of feet standing on the ground, nothing left from the knees to the head.

Deep in the shadow of the fallen blocks of stone he looked up and ran through them with his head low and his arms flying behind him, not wanting or needing to glide with his cloak because he was already too low to use them. He skidded to a stop in the shadow between the pair of feet and flashed through three handseals, a spark of electricity passed through his blue eyes. _"Hiden art: Shadow Sewing."_ And from the place he hid in a single black thread weaved on the ground and connected to the shadow of the incoming onslaught of bombs, threading through all the paper bomb shadows in a single shadow thread. All the bombs froze in mid-air, in the middle of the thin smoke stack around the pair of feet, away from the sage seeing him use shadow manipulation. The assassin braced himself and threw his cloak open with a mental image, he leaped forward and flashed up the thread to the very top, so high up he could even see the clouds that poured rain over the village. He instinctively wrapped his legs around the torso of the woman, from behind her, and his right arm went over her shoulder and grabbed her chin while his other hand remained back and grabbed the back of her purple haired head. Quick as a flash and testament to his experience as an assassin he snapped the woman's neck in one fluid motion.

_Crack!_

He didn't even consider the flapping paper wings on her back or the fact that it was a woman in black and red clouded cloak. When the body crumbled into fizzling paper in his arms he hissed under his breath and muttered. "Ah shit-"

_Boooooooooom!_

The chain of paper he had in his thread as well as the paper clone she had replaced herself with exploded with enough force to rip apart the earth and send violent tremors and quakes throughout the whole village, starting from the paper clone down to the paper bombs close to the pair of feet that used to be a path of Pein; even the cliff over the sea crumbled apart and the rocks plopped into the water, eliciting mighty splashes. Jiraiya didn't have time to look deep into the thin smoke before he had to flee from being roasted alive, yet again, by another explosion but this time of greater magnitude. There was a mighty thud and finally silence.

Jiraiya was then had the option of reporting his findings to the Hokage or further investigating what he had already gotten; he chose the former. With a final look to the devastation that had been multiple paper jutsu bombs he ran in a blur of speed. Naruto sighed in relief when he felt his target flee and closed his eyes. He was the one that had landed on his back at roughly a thousand feet in the air, and he was in _pain_. His clothes were singed and his cloak was now a blurry shadowy movement that flapped in the wind, not as corporal as before. The rain that poured on him flattened his hair down and soaked into his skin, weighing him down but he still felt his lips curve up as Jiraiya became nothing more than a speck of nature chakra in the distance.

Mission complete.

He opened an eye when he heard a flurry of paper gather to his right. His weakly opened eye looked up into the stoic gaze of the 'Angel of Ame' and the woman bent down on one knee beside him. She took off the head seat and Naruto felt like this was how the main rinnegan holder, if there was a main rinnegan holder, was telling her where he was even if he was in a shadow. She tapped a small red button on the headset and tucked it into her cloak.

"So you are the Night." She said in a low voice.

He shrugged weakly, his limbs spread eagle and his chest panting for air a little. "Depends on who's asking." His smirk went up a fraction and even though her face didn't convey it he saw a small, almost invisible twinkle in her eyes.

She fully knelt down beside him and her lips lowered to his face, she tucked her rain dampened purple hair behind her ear and whispered close to his ear. "I need your help…Lord Night."

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

**06:30PM**

**Konoha Supermarket**

**Market district**

**Konohagakure no Sato**

An elderly woman in a black bob and white apron eyed the scrappily dressed youngster for a minute as he presented two loaves of bread, three different boxes of cereal and a pack of sugar to her side of the check-out. The boy was a mess; blonde-black hair chaotic and a few strands sticking to his forehead with sweat, his flak jacket, if you would call it that, was barely hanging on his body by thin green threads, his long black sleeves were frayed up to his elbows and his pants were not better either. Her lips twitched down at the way he was and the boy seemed to gather his senses; his shadow crept up his body and covered his torso to his calf in a long cloak.

Store policy dictated that she treat each customer with respect, the camera pointing at her section that was linked straight to the manager's office also contributed to her swallowing her venom and stiffly swiping his purchases across the counter.

"Will that be all…_sir_?" she hissed under her breathe and the _boy_ sent her a wiggly smile and nodded.

"Yes."

"That would be a hundred and fifty ryu." She could see him rummage inside his cloak and finally present her with a two hundred ryu note. The woman took the money and handed him his change, which he dropped into the tip jar, took his paper bag full of his purchases and swept out of the supermarket. The doors slid open and as he stepped out the tired ninja closed his eyes and breathed in deeply as he felt the rays of the sun dip under the horizon.

"Just when I thought I'd get some rest." He sighed forlornly and began to walk forward again towards his clan's compound, until a small weight slammed into his back and jolted him forward slightly, not enough to unstable or even drop his bag of things. He was tired and almost dangerously low on chakra but not _that_ tired. There was a small groan behind him. He looked over his shoulder at the blonde haired girl sitting on her butt and rubbing her sore head.

"I'm sorry; I wasn't looking where I was going."

The Nara turned to her and carefully looked at her, even though she was still busy trying to remember where she was after slamming face first into what felt like a solid marble and brick wall. The girl was obviously about his younger brother's age, dressed in a mid-riff black shirt and white shorts, with just a pair of white socks that went into black sneakers. Her blonde hair was styled into two pony tails and when she opened her eyes her bright blue eyes, very similar to his, he instantly remembered who she is.

"Ah, don't worry about it." He held out his hand and helped her up. She dusted down the back of her shorts and looked at him with large eyes. It was almost painful how the memories came back to him; a tiny blue eyed girl clinging onto his legs with Shikamaru, begging him to show them jutsu. He was one of the ninjas that guarded the girl when she was younger and, naturally, he would invite his younger brother to accompany him during those times; that was how Shika and Suzu became great friends. Back when he was still looking after her she would make it a competition to see how much she could get under his skin by whining with Shika; their attempts were cute but he was used to handling Gai on his most youthful of days. Nothing could top that.

Suzu eyed him curiously and furrowed her eyebrows; he could basically see the cogs turning in her head. "Do I know you, mister?" the hair looked familiar and the paleness of his face just added to it. Then it clicked. "Naruto?!" she tackled him in a strong hug and stepped back hastily, a light dusting of red on her cheeks. She was also four when he left; it was a _miracle_ she could even remember him.

Naruto beamed at her and patted her head, increasing the blush by only a little. "You're a lot taller than I remember." His hand went back to his side.

The jinchuriki puffed out her cheeks. "Well yeah, I'm not four anymore." She looked at his bag of things, then to his general unpreparedness, as seen by his messed up hair. "Just coming back from another mission?"

"Something like that." he answered shortly and threw the conversation away from him. "Where are you going?" the street lights were already on and the streets were clearing. Shops were closing and the shadow user could see a few ANBU flit around on the roofs.

"I'm going to have a sleepover at Hinata's." The Hyuuga heiress, his mind filled in. He didn't want to know where she kept her sleep over things; maybe they were already at the Hyuuga compound. "Madam Kazahana just released another movie and I am _dying_ to watch it."

"Well I don't want to stop you." He said with a quick smile. "If you need anything, you know where to find me." The cloaked man began walking away until he heard a loud call from the girl.

"Uhm hey! Where were you for ten years? We were all worried." It was like a dagger to his heart at the way her voice broke a little. Naruto was a friendly; unsurprisingly he has a lot of friends, friends' that he still planned to go around that very evening to see. Maybe it was best if he laid off the long term missions without prior warning to them.

"I was protecting Konoha." He said as he turned back to her. The Nara sent her a two fingered salute and began walking away backwards. "See you later, Suzu." And he spun around and walked forward, leaving the slightly flustered girl alone and almost, _almost_ lost for breathe.

"Damn it, old man." She sighed resignedly with her shoulders slumped down heavily. It was what she called Naruto when he was still looking after her and for the life of her it never got to him. The Kyuubi holder then remembered herself and she waved to her former guardians back as she called. "I'll see you later, old man!"

Naruto felt a small smirk creep up his lips and he silently waved over his shoulder back to her. The girl could feel the great beast sealed in her scoff and she resisted the temptation of punching herself in the stomach. She darted in another direction towards the Hyuuga compound.

Now the oldest son of the Nara clan head had to worry about dinner with his family, drinks with his father and his father's friends, he need to switch his sake for juice or something, visiting all of his friends and apologizing_ and_ the job he had to do tomorrow with the stoic Angel of Ame, Konan.


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't know how to play Shogi (Japanese chess) so instead of that I will be using regular chess (you know the one I'm talking about) instead of Shogi. Or checkers, I might use that too. Anyone that's up for teaching me how to play Shogi I'll really appreciate it. Yes I could read it on Wikipedia but I'm a practical learner, reading instructions might kill me.**

CHAPTER FOUR

**Silence of the Night**

**O9:33PM**

**Nara clan heads house**

**Nara clan compound**

**Konoha**

Naruto groaned, both tiredly and in pain, as he fell face down on his bed, rubbing his aching lower back with his right hand. Most of his friends didn't appreciate him disappearing for ten years and suddenly dropping in at their houses for a friendly visit; Kureanai, who was now living with Asuma, good for them, he added mentally, had almost cut off his hands with the knife she was using to cut vegetables. Gai slapped his back; it was meant to be a friendly gesture but he could see the suppressed fire in the youthful man's eyes. Kakashi had thrown his whole bookcase of porn at him and he just barely got away from the copy ninjas CD collection of porn, stashed in _several_ cardboard boxes. Yugao kept calling him 'Crunchy the Ballsy Ninja' when he went to see her at the ANBU barracks, always asking him if he was up for a few rounds before cackling at his expense. He found Anko in the T&I and he just _barely_ made it out alive, but she made sure to leave an imprint of her sandals on his lower back. The others at the T&I helped chase him down.

He didn't even want to _think_ about Hime Kurama and Bumi Aburame, wife of the Aburame clan head. The things they did to him…

A shiver travelled down his spine.

At least they've forgiven him.

It didn't help that his mother giggled as he limped passed her.

The oldest son of the Nara clan head groaned loudly into his pillow when he heard a knock on the door. The person pushed the door open and Shikamaru's head peeked in before he opened the door completely. His eyebrows struggled not to lower at the state of his brother, but he clasped the Chess board under his arm and coughed. Naruto looked at him and hastily sat up from his bed, suddenly alert and ready to take another round of beatings.

"Yo, Shika. How's it going?" he said in an attempt to look calm and collected but the perspiration building on his forehead and the way his left hand inched behind him to rub at the soreness of his back was an instant give-away that it was an act. The younger brother's lips tightened and his lips wiggled downwards but he refused to frown. The genius of the Konoha nine and team Gai inhaled deeply through his nose and released it through his mouth, before he said.

"Can we have a round of Chess?" he patted the board under his left arm, still in its box.

Naruto blinked once, then he shot to his feet abruptly, enough to make Shikamaru flinch a little. "Sure! I mean…ok, if you're up for it."

"Great." The younger genius grunted and shuffled into the room, leaving the door open by Naruto non-verbal request; their mother never liked them closing their doors _unless_ it was bedtime. Yoshino's word was law. Naruto stood up and his cape dissolved into his shadow. The older Nara brother threw open his wardrobe and pulled out a foldable green table that he, their father and even Shikamaru used to play Shogi, chess, checkers and even a few round of cards. He set the table in the middle of the room and tossed a foldable chair to his brother, who caught it and snapped it open in one fluid motion. Naruto then took his own seat from his wardrobe and smoothly walked to the table, where Shikamaru was setting up the chess board, and swiftly took his seat. The younger Nara pushed the black pieces to him and they both silently arranged the pieces in their place, the younger black haired male finished first.

Naruto coughed into his left hand and presented his right fist over the chessboard to his brother, who bumped it, a sign of mutual respect their father had taught them to show before a game, and as their fists disconnected Shikamaru's hand flattened and Naruto hand fisted tightly. The older son cursed under his breathe, eliciting a small smirk from the younger genius. "You win, go first." He raised his hand for his brother to stop and Shikamaru looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "But know this; I won't be going easy on you."

"It'll insult my honour if you do." The boy replied and Naruto scoffed, sitting back and motioning for the chunin to make his move.

Shikamaru perched his head on his hand and examined the board for four long minutes, Naruto waited patiently with a barely suppressed smile, before he made his move. Naruto chuckled deeply, an evil sound that put Shika on edge but he made sure to send a defiant look at the Night, a genius that was probably even smarter than their father, and moved as well, the younger genius cursed foully under his breathe, making their mothers ears twitch all the way from the living room downstairs. The younger Nara intended to use his first move as a decoy but apparently Naruto saw right through it. Shikamaru moved again and twenty seconds later he was on his hand and knees, blubbering with tears flowing down his eyes in dramatic torrents and snot dribbling down from his nose.

Naruto shook his head in exasperation at the familiar act, as well as the familiar words of his brother pleading for him for another game.

Ten minutes and thirty two games later and Shikamaru was catatonically lying on the ground, his eyes blankly staring at the starry ceiling, already regretting why he came to ask his brother for a game of chess. A match against their father was much easier; at least the man was merciful.

Worst part was that Naruto never used the same strategy once; if he did he would cover it up with about three or four dummy moves and take him out, always with a pawn. This was coming from a boy that was hailed by his team sensei as a genius, and who was fully capable of defeating anyone in his generation and a few chunin in a fair game of chess, and he was able to give his team sensei a run for his money too. Naruto never moved more than ten times and by the third move, mostly with his pawn, again, Shikamaru was already sweating bullets. It was like this when they were younger, except his older brother went easier on him; Naruto probably thought that since Shika was a chunin he would have better tactics and strategies.

He almost felt sorry for whipping the poor boy around.

Almost, the Night added in his mind with a low chuckle as he heard his younger brother groan loudly on the ground and rolled to his side in a sad, foetal position, wondering where it all went wrong; he was absolutely sure his plans were well hidden for globs sake!

The brothers were silent after that sound, until Shikamaru asked. "I missed you…big bro." Naruto could hardly keep the tears from falling from his eyes.

"Thank you, Shika." He said gratefully, happy that his brother had finally forgiven him. Their parents made sure to lecture him on why Naruto wasn't able to be around for ten years and added with the prodding of Suzu and Hinata, Shikamaru was finally able to come around to reconcile with his older brother. Naruto wiped away the river of tears with his wrists and said. "C'mon, sit up. Let me show you some moves."

The younger brother quickly got up and sat down in expectation, wide eyed and raptly listening to what his brother was saying, teaching him strategies that even he wasn't aware of.

Meanwhile Shikaku watched the brothers, a smile dancing on his lips.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

**Ameagakure no Sato**

Itachi wasn't the only spy Jiraiya had in the Akatsuki.

Konan knew Nagato and Yahiko since they were kids and before the last civil war that ended everything they even shuffled to each other's houses and fooled around. After they all lost their parents and they thought all was lost Jiraiya came around and took them in when no one else would. He gave them purpose, he gave them the tools to survive in the world no matter how harsh and how wicked it could get and he set them free to live their lives.

That was what a teacher was and Jiraiya, for all his flaws and for all the mistakes he made in his life, was a great teacher.

He was the greatest man the three children had ever met and they all made a vow to make him proud as he set them free.

Attacking their former sensei _willingly_ and with intention to kill was not the line Nagato crossed that made the Angel of Ame furious. The line had been crossed and defiled on multiple occasions a very long time ago, specifically when her friend-_former_ friend-went against their dream of peace. The three teammates, Rest in Peace Yahiko, finally brought peace to their war torn village after many years of tyrannical ruler ship by Hanzo the Salamander. All they wanted was peace, Yahiko had even willingly given his life for the cause; even if the peace was only for their village it would have been more than enough for them.

But Nagato, bitter that the war had killed his dog, not even his parents, his _fucking_ _**dog**_ pushed for a global war under the guise that he wanted the world to be peaceful from having a weapon slash beast of mass destruction pointed at it. It was a pitiful excuse to want to destroy Konoha and flatten the empty island of Uzushio. He fell under the honeyed words of the masked man called Madara and used his rinnegan to kill, not to protect and ensure peace.

Let it not be said that Konan was not angry that Nagato had raised his hand against the man that gave them the tools to punch life in the face; she is forever loyal to peace and the stoic Angel of Ame was not going to have any of his revenge nonsense.

After observing the Akatsuki for years, she started informing Jiraiya from the shadows but with the way Nagato always wanted her in his presence to consolidate his position as god and Kage of Ameagakure she could only do so only once-in a very long-while.

When they caught Jiraiya sneaking through their village she was nearly tempted to attack her red haired former friend but when Nagato had snarled about the Night aiding their sensei she stilled her hand; the Night was more than capable of keeping their former sensei alive. And he had shown it by dispatching all six paths with what she could only describe as deceptive and ingenious attacks and counters. Instead of conceding defeat her former friend had given her a headset, because she only had two receiver's as ear piercings, making four, but they were too weak to do anything more than teleport her to the fight with Jiraiya and the Night. The problem was that she couldn't just yell and convince him that she was on his side so she had to weaken him and force him in a position that he had to listen to her.

Accepting her proposal was up to him, and thankfully the Night accepted.

Konan proposed they kill Nagato now that he was weak from losing his paths. Before he could replace his paths he had to find strong ninjas, kill them _somehow_ and plant receivers and a mirror copy of the rinnegan in them. That would take a month, two if he was going to take his time, which wasn't the case. He had proposed they kill Itachi, Kisame and Diedara for their bodies, maybe even add Orochimaru because they still had a bone to pick with him and Kabuto just to spite Orochimaru, which wound down his time to recover to two weeks.

Before he could begin his plans to refortify his personal defences in case the Night returned for his head she showed him Naruto's forehead protector and his black cloak, a copy the Night created from a portion of her shadow so it wouldn't dissolve when he was too far from it.

The Angel of Ame was positive that the Night was more than enough to take out the weakened rinnegan holder, because by herself she would most likely be killed, even if he was crippled. Night asked for a night to recuperate and also for her to take over Ame and fully ally with Konoha; he didn't expect to see her again so he left the conditions at there.

Nagato blankly looked out of the window of the Amekage's tower, at the smouldering holes in his village and at the civilians that were being dragged from under the wreckage of their homes. They had been pulling more and more people out from under destroyed houses, more than a few wound up already dead or died as soon as they were rescued. The shinobi were being run ragged to keep the peace and heal those that were fatally wounded in the fight that occurred the other day. Most were calling for his head, even his ninjas grumbled under the breathes; he was meant to protect them, keep the chaos of the world away from their village but the casualties of both the civilian and shinobi populace kept growing. His dark eyes kept track of a purple haired woman at the very bottom using small whirlwinds of paper to lift up debris and shift those under them out with a paper stretcher being pushed by medics.

They have been working for hours.

Konan knelt down beside a crying girl clutching the dismembered hand of her father, and gently hugged her closely with her face set in a neutral, unemotional expression. She slowly eased the hand out of the little girls vice grip and waved for a female ninja to take care of the child as she went back to recovering those that were trapped under broken buildings. Her eyes were hollow and empty as she beheld the throngs of devastated people around her, trying their best to dig out their loved ones. Those around her shuffled with their backs bowed out of respect for her but they still mustered enough courage to ask for her help looking for a friend or a member of the family. She felt eyes on her back and she looked up, through the heavy downpour of the chakra rain, to the eyes of her former friend. The rinnegan holder could feel the crippling disappointment in him by the purple haired Angel of Ame and he sharply looked away, his hands clenched on the armrest of his throne, to another group of people a little bit away from the tower, gathering in a collection of craters he caused when his elephant-rhino animal path summon bashed Gamabunta with a war hammer, which was blocked by the massive toads sword but the backlash was dreadful.

The god of Ame felt a quick pulse of chakra only his rinnegan allowed him to sense and his eyes widened in panic before a kunai slid across his throat and a hand clasped over his mouth to muffle his alarmed yells.

Naruto materialized beside the throne, left hand over Nagato's mouth and right hand still grasping the kunai to neck, dripping with blood. His eyes were blank of emotion, the shadows that ringed around them, falling down to his cheeks, and the flurry of shadows that billowed around the Nara assassin cast darkness around the section of room. The Night made sure he looked straight into the eyes of the dying god as he flicked his weapon to his side, splashing small drops of blood onto the glass window, spun the knife in his palm before he returned it to the abyss of darkness in his (intentionally) billowing cloak. The assassin had learnt from his battle with the paths the other day that even if he crept through the shadows to his target he would still be sensed very easily. So all he did was map out the shadows from the border of the village straight into the tower to his target and fly right through with as much speed his gliding cloak would allow him.

The genius among geniuses watched the man's eyes bulge with rebelliousness, even as the blood pumping out of the deep slash passing through his jugular stained his black with red cloud cloak down to his navel. Naruto blinked but made sure to still cover Nagato's mouth, watching as his targets eyes became lidded with wooziness. The doujutsu glowed, about to blast a jutsu at the assassin but sputtered off as the blood loss became too much; he couldn't breathe, his arms refused to move.

The god of Ame's felt his head slump to the left and darkness ringed around his vision, surrounding the torrents of rain that could be seen through the blood stained window. He gasped for air one last time, choking out more blood from his mouth and neck wound, and the sleepy shadows covering his eyes eased him down, putting him to a fitful sleep until he stopped moving, staring with dead, glazed eyes at nothing at all.

Naruto cocked his head to the side and used his free hand to check for a pulse as well as use his right pointer and middle finger to send a probe of chakra to see if the coils in Nagato's body was still pulsing with activity, a clear sign of life that no living creature could supress, even with the aid of drugs. He wasn't an unranked jounin assassin for nothing.

As he slowly eased his hand off the dead man's mouth his cloak settled down and solidified over his torso like it normally would. The Nara closed his eyes and inhaled deeply; he rolled his neck, eliciting a quiet crack, and began removing the rinnegan eyes from the corpse. He stored the eyes in his Night Dimension, where it would stay until he decided otherwise, and a _Hiden art: Shadow Clone_ rose from the ground, nodded to him silently and moved to the bottom of the building to tell Konan that he had competed the job; she didn't want to be in the room to see the betrayal in Nagato's eyes, or watch as another one of her childhood friends died.

As the assassin removed the trace of blood on the walls by sending another clone he positioned the head of the former Kage properly and dusted down the dead man's shoulders, just to make him look like he died a dignified death as per the requirements the woman who contracted him to kill her former friend pleaded for him to go by, but also out of a morbid feeling of respect he felt for the man. Naruto stood back and looked at Nagato, his arms to his side and his cloak hiding his body from his neck to his calves.

He looked over his shoulder when a ripple of air spiralled to a stop four feet behind him. His dead blue eyes, still gleaming in the dark like he was an evil blue eyed phantom of the night, looked at the new comer. A man about his height in a one eyed spirally orange mask and in the regular garb of the S rank organisation that was apparently called the Akatsuki. The Night narrowed his eyes but returned them to the dead god on the throne before him.

"Who are you?" his voice echoed around the deathly silent throne room, ever so slowly clones rose up from the shadows on the walls, took a mechanical step forward and kept a close eye on the masked man. Naruto mentally commanded a small tendril from his cloak to touch the ground and his eyes narrowed to thin slits as the familiar chakra signature of the man came to him. "Ah…it's you…"

The man that killed the Yondaime and the former princess of Whirlpool.

Of course he remembered him; Naruto was one of the first responders to the Fourth Hokage's position when the Kyuubi attacked and the last person to catch a glimpse of the masked man before he disappeared in a kamui vortex.

Tobi-he mentally shook his head and dropped the idiot guise-Obito slowly walked to Naruto and stopped beside the assassin. "So you remember me, even after all these years." He said in a low voice as he too looked at the cooling body of the former rinnegan holder.

Naruto's face remained featureless and calm; if he was anything he was professional, as he replied. "Yes." The clones at the walls surrounding them mutely watched on. "…You killed my friends. I can't forget that."

"They were in my way."

"No, they weren't." Naruto sharply responded as he looked at Obito from the corner of his eyes.

Obito shrugged. "Be that as it may I still need the rinnegan. Where is it?"

"You won't care about it where you're going." Naruto said as multiple tendrils of darkness from his cloak shot to the man beside him but Obito disappeared in another invisible vortex, his last words echoing in the air.

"_I will have those eyes, Night, no matter what…_"

Naruto's eyes looked down and he glared at the ground, seething in silence. The clones returned to their original forms and the Nara assassin screwed his lips to the side, before he walked briskly to the door. He stopped briefly as Konan stepped in front of him. The paper angel bowed deeply and said. "Thank you, Lord Night."

"It's fine." Naruto grunted as he passed her. "Honour our deal, Angel of Ameagakure Konan."

"I swear on my life." She said after him and watching as the assassin took his time leaving the building. _'Now…I need to find a way to ally with Konoha.'_

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

**08:00PM**

**Flower Gail Restaurant**

**Restaurant street, market district**

**Konoha**

In the end it was hard to stop thinking about the orange masked man.

Naruto had returned back home in a daze, only listlessly passing through the house to his room like a phantom, silent enough to worry his mother, who was watching TV in the main room. The man didn't know how long he stood by the window, just looking outside at everything and nothing at all, not even paying attention on his surroundings.

He finally found the man that was directly responsible for killing the Yondaime and his wife. Two of his close friends, and now he didn't know what to do. Whether or not to dedicate his every waking life to finding the murderer and executing justice or letting it flow off his shoulders. Minato and Kushina's death was the spot in Naruto's conscience that was yet to heal and being made to regularly see Suzu Uzumaki, the daughter of his late friends, was a constant reminder of his mistake, but he wouldn't avoid the girl like Kakashi. He faced his demons and he reconciled with them.

Suzu was merely a child that had been trusted in his care and care for her he will. His mental alarm rang and reminded him of his hot date with the Godaime Hokage, which would take place in about thirty minutes.

The oldest son of the Nara clan head decided to focus on his date than wallow in his dark thoughts; he would deal with his resurfaced demons later.

Naruto hummed and sat down at the table the waiter presented him to, looking around for a head of blonde hair coming towards him. He looked down at his attire once again, a black suit with a short sleeved white shirt underneath, because he was paranoid he would need to rip off his coat to fight and any long sleeve that wasn't skin tight slowed him down, black pants and formal black dress shoes. The Nara adjusted his black bow tie and straightened his coat, as he anxiously looked around again. Ten minutes of waiting and the man was gloomily drooping his head on his table, disdainfully eyeing the happy couples that were settled on tables around him, who in turn looked at him with pity.

A deep sigh escaped his lips as thirty boring minutes ran by. He checked his watch for the hundredth time and politely told the waiter that he was fine, but the sympathetic man poured him a glass of water and left a basket of bread on his table. On the house, he was told, but Naruto would make sure the man got a heft tip at the end of the night. His mood worsened as he munched on his bread, an hour ran by and with a deep disappointed sigh the assassin waved for the waiter that had been attending to his table over and placed five hundred ryu, in five individual hundred ryu pieces, and rose up from his seat, his self-worth and confidence reduced to nothing. The younger man bowed to him appreciatively and tentatively, as politely as possible, asked Naruto to come back whenever he wanted.

Naruto could barely muster up a reply to the man as he slinked to the door, concerned and partly understanding eyes followed the unranked jounin popularly known as the Night. His bright blue eyes dulled and looked at the ground as he walked out of the door, just as Shizune Kato was about to enter. The assistant to the Hokage watched as the Nara walked off with his shoulders slumped and she tried to raise her voice to call him back, but no words left her lips.

The twenty year old woman felt her shoulders sink as well, disappointed at her cowardice and the fact that her mistress had set up a date for her with her idol and she had messed it all up with her nerves. Her strapless short black dress and heels were now going to waste and worst of all she had let down Naruto most of all, even though he didn't know she was the one he was waiting for instead of the Godaime. She threw down her purse in frustration, drawing the attention of a man standing by the door of the restaurant, tasked with the job of opening doors for guests. He looked to be in his early forties and his eyes showed that he had seen his fair share of romance. He looked between Naruto's figure in the distance, only illuminated by the streetlights, and then to Shizune, who had collapsed onto her knees and her head tilted to the ground in regret.

He made sure that no one was entering anytime soon before he silently walked to Shizune. The medic looked at the pair of polished black shoes in her line of vision, then slowly looked up the equally black pair of pants to the white long sleeved button up shirt, then finally to the face of the doorman.

His face was set in a small smile as he pointed at Naruto, who was walking in the direction of the Hokage's monument. "Go."

"But-"

He shook his head and shushed her. "Go."

"I messed up-" she started and he again shook his head, the small smile ever present and comforting to the flustered and remorseful woman.

"It's now or never." He said in his deep voice. Shizune furrowed her eyebrows and looked at her hands, then she clenched them and sharply looked up to where Naruto had gone. She grabbed her purse from the ground in tight hands, took off her heels from her kneeling position and ran after Naruto.

"Naruto! Wait up!"

Naruto's ears twitched when he heard his name and he turned around just in time to catch the red faced woman before she could collide with his back. He patiently waited for her to get her breathe, his eyes still dull from how 'well' the night had gone. The woman took in a massive gulp of air and stood ramrod under his cool gaze, she could already feel the sweat build on her forehead as her mind forced her mouth to move, although no words came out, only gusts of air that might as well be called loud panting.

"Guh…who…ah, uh, ahm…" She said and placed her hands on her hips. "You….he…ah…who, me, ah…" Naruto raised an eyebrow, mildly intrigued that the quiet girl he knew from his younger days that had an awful stutter around him, and suspiciously _only_ around him because he had seen her have a meaningful conversation with others, tried to force words out of her mouth. He crossed his arms and watched the amusing spectacle.

It got too painful to watch after two minutes and he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. She sealed her lips shut and looked up at him with a beet red face, her knees shaking and her palms becoming sweaty. "Yes?"

"Where are you going!" she yelled just as he finished speaking, surprising him enough for him to take back his hand and take a step back. The woman cursed herself under her breathe.

Naruto felt his lips wobble upwards at her outburst and he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the Hokage's monument. "I was going over there to think." He eyed her general state of undress; her rumpled short black dress, the heels she had in her arm and her slightly dusty purse. "Where are _you_ going? Got a hot date." He felt his spirits lower at his own 'hot date' and he immediately felt sorry for her, guessing that she was running away from a terrible night too. "I'm sorry, Shizune, you deserve better."

Her eyes bulged at the assumption that she was capable of going on a date with any other person than him. "I was…I was…" she exhaled at her clumsiness before she squared her shoulders and looked at him right in the eyes. _'It's now or never.'_ she repeated in her mind. "I was just going there too." She said as she wiped the sweat on her brow with the back of her right hand, which held her purse.

The Nara pursed his lips and hummed, searching her eyes for deception but letting it go finding the lie in favour of nodding to the monument. "Would it be fine if I accompany you? I promise you won't even notice me." He motioned for them to walk and she shakily followed suit.

Shizune shook her head and gave him her best, brightest smile. "No, its fine; I was hoping for some company."

They silently walked and Shizune vowed that that night she would beg for his forgiveness and ask for a second chance.

**Authors note**

**The pairing isn't Naruto x Tsunade, you'll find out when the story ends ;)**

**Drop a review, would you so kindly, follow me on Tumblr at **_**ghost-of-foy**_** and I will see you when I see you.**

**Foy.**


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

**Trials of the Night**

**11:00am**

**Nara clan deer ranch number 3**

**Nara clan compound**

**Konoha**

Naruto grunted as he heaved a bale of hay and lugged it across the deer enclosure, dropping it on the ground and ripping off the white rope that held it together so he could scatter it on the ground. He wiped his forehead with the back of the thick gloves on his hands and watched, satisfied, as deer lumbered to from a far corner of the ranch, where they surrounded a large stag who was the leader of the herd and also led the procession towards the dry grass food Naruto had scattered. The air was getting hotter and the grass was struggling to stay green, so hay was the next best option until the rain returned. The blonde-black haired Nara went back and forth four more times, carrying only a single bale because he didn't feel like overexerting himself, and scattering the grass around for the deer as his eyes passively counted the ones in the ranch. Thirty deer; there were seven more ranches around the clan compound, close to a partly thick forest where the animals could roam around but for the moment they were to be kept in the ranch.

Naruto dusted his hand, covered in large, thick brown gloves that were mainly used when they tended to deer, and perched his hand on his hips proudly. The assassin was in a pair of black trousers that was neatly tucked into his shin height, thick brown boots, which helped in wading through the shit around the ranch. He was also in a black, long sleeved shirt with the Nara clan's symbol on the back. A frown crossed his face and he turned his head, looking back and sighed at what he saw; about fourteen of his female clan mates were leaning on the fence of the ranch, batting their eyes at the males, who were busy flexing their muscles as they lifted bales of hay above their head in a show of strength. The women giggled and whispered among themselves as they watched the men strut around with their chest puffed out, their usually sleepy eyes wide and alert and _waiting_ for someone to poke them so that they would show off their strength even more.

The clan heads oldest son almost believed that it was mating season in the clan.

Naruto walked over to the men and sat down on the fence, his eyes became half-lidded and lazy as he observed the large stag express his dominance among the other deer, the younger stags kept their heads lowered and the female deer flocked around the large deer and ate, slightly bumping against them to get him to notice them and mate with them.

The assassin closed his eyes and refrained from cringing, not because he wasn't well versed in the biology of deer mating and reproduction, his father forced the knowledge into his head, but rather by how familiar it looked. At his appearance and setting himself among them on the fence the men suddenly calmed down and walked around with lowered heads, shuffling around hay and shovelling poop into large buckets, which would in turn be used as manure in a later time. A few plopped down beside him and a few stalked around in front of him. Naruto silently rolled his eyes; naturally he was the leader in their gathering, not because he was the most accomplished Nara among them but because he was the clan heads oldest son. Of course there were other assassins in their group, Naruto remembered three as his gaze fell on them, but he had the strongest control of the clan bloodline.

He shook his head in exasperation, wondering why he had to work with horny men and women in his age group.

"Hey Naruto." He heard from the guy to his side, also sitting on the fence and watching the deer eat. Naruto hummed and looked at him. "How was your date with Lady Fifth?" he asked with an amusedly upward twitch of his lips, but this laugh was quickly overpowered by a sleepy expression as his eyes became dull and a large yawn escaped his lips.

Naruto chuckled a little and shrugged, observing that the other men were also raptly paying attention. "Turns out she isn't into younger men." He heard a loud 'aha! I told you. Pay up, idiot.' And a full blown laugh erupted out. The group of black haired (with a few deep blue, deep purple and naturally grey haired) men fell into low laughs as well.

"I heard that Lady Fifth's assistant, Shizune was it? Asked you out." the same guy asked with a playful jab to the blonde-black haired Nara's ribs.

"Where'd you hear that from?" Naruto was sure that the events of the night were a great secret. Plus, he didn't agree to go out with the shy medic; rather he proposed a chat over coffee on a later date.

The man stretched and placed his hands behind his head. "Well, my girlfriend," a few sputtering laughs rippled through the group of men, and even Naruto had to clamp his lips shut and try to keep the water in his eyes from falling. The man flipped off each of his friends and repeated. "My _girlfriend_ said during her morning rounds in the hospital she saw Shizune skipping around in the chakra poisoning ward, singing about some sort of rabbit eating a hotdog, I don't know."

"So because Shizune is singing questionable songs your 'girlfriend'" he air quoted and the man punched his shoulder in tune with the laughs. "Thinks I'm the cause?"

"No, she also wouldn't stop talking about it. You are one lucky bastard."

Naruto rolled his eyes and was about to retort, but there was a loud call behind him. "Yo, old man!"

The group of Nara, even the women, turned to the sound and Naruto face palmed when he saw Suzu speeding towards him in a black midriff shirt and red tights black sneakers, waving a sheathed red and black sword over her head. The jinchuriki also had on a pair of orange knee and elbow pads, and ensuring her long blond hair was tied up in loose twin buns. The fourteen year old girl stumbled and managed to catch herself in time before she could face plant into the ground as all the adults that were looking at her as well. She regained her composure as she skidded to a stop before Naruto, who was now fully facing her with a curiously raised eyebrow.

"Suzu, how can I help you?" he asked and the others too cocked their head to the side. The women stopped giggling and paid attention as the 'Stag' addressed the holder of the nine tailed fox, a few more adventurous, and tomboyish women approached the group of men and squeezed in to lean on the fence closer to the clan heads oldest son.

The girl bowed abruptly; embarrassed by all the attentions he was getting, and held out her blade to Naruto. "I would like to have a kenjutsu spar with you, old man." She then added as quickly as possible before Naruto could speak. "You also said I could meet you if I needed something."

"Isn't Yugao your sensei? I'm sure she is well suited to kenjutsu spars than I am."

"_Kakashi_ is my sensei, Yugao is my _sempai_. You see, I want to be ANBU captain one day." She said as she puffed out her chest and tilted her chin up. "So what do you say?"

"I'm not really a sword using type-"

"Oh please, I read that you're so good with a sword that the longest you've ever used a sword is a month before it breaks."

Naruto scratched the back of his head and a large drop of sweat grew on the side of his head when his age mates began mumbling, a few of them looked at him with something akin to complete respect and a few of the females nudged his back, sending shivers down his back; he didn't want to compare himself to the clan's deer. That was his parent's kink, and he didn't want _anything_ to do with it. Just thinking about it gave him a terrible burning sensation in his chest. "That's because I have the bad luck of buying inferior blades, plus I'm sure breaking swords on a regular basis is a _bad_ thing."

It was a lie; any self-respecting shinobi bought their weapons from Higuarashi, and the weapons the muscled man sold were of absolute best quality, so much so he was constantly given good reviews, and thus more patronage.

"Please old man, sempai said I should find someone else to spar with to 'expand my repertoire'. She even said I should spar with you first!" she fell on her knees and dramatic tears poured out of her eyes like waterfalls.

Naruto lilted on his spot on the fence, until he shrugged and hopped off the enclosure boundary and motioned for the girl to get up. "Alright, give me all you've got."

Suzu shot to her feet and bowed repeatedly to the assassin. "Thank you!" she unsheathed her blade and dropped the scabbard on the ground, making Naruto realize that she made use of a saber that was slightly curved at the tip rather than the usual katana that shinobi regularly used. The blade sparkled red with the sharp edge a foreboding black, and the hilt and handle were a solid black. The girl placed her left hand behind her back and pointed her weapon at the ground in what Naruto recognised as a Leaf Fencing Kenjutsu stance, close to what Kushina used when she was still alive. The girl blinked twice and pointed out. "Where is your sword?"

Naruto palmed his face and his blue eyes looked around, before it fell on one of the guys sitting on the fence watching him. "Are those swords we used when we were kids still usable?"

The man's eyes widened and he gaped. "Are you sure you want to use that? Her saber looks really sharp. We can always just get you a _real_ sword to use."

"Nope, using a real sword is overkill." The assassin insisted, much to the collective surprise of his group of friends. "It's just a spar, right? If you come at me with all you've got and maybe I'm impressed then next time I'll use a real sword." a woman from the throng of Nara behind him pulled back her sleeve to expose a storage seal on her forearm, a puff of smoke later and a sword made out of hay lay in her hands. It was held together by white bands so that the tightly compacted dry grass could keep its form. She tossed the sword to Naruto and the assassin caught it with his right hand, flicking it to the ground to make sure that it was still usable and nodded to himself when the hay sword didn't fall apart. "Perfect."

"Are you sure you want to use that thing?" Suzu asked sceptically and Naruto shrugged.

"Give me all you've got." He spun the sword on his palm and held it laxly, pointing straight to the ground instead of the inclined position Suzu held her own weapon. Naruto's face cleared off all emotion as he tilted his head down and looked at the ground, casting a shadow over his upper face and having his shaggy hair shade his eyes. His blue eyes looked up and shone through the darkness, sending terrible chills down Suzu's spine when she felt the darkness that roiled around the Nara assassin. The dark shadows that made Naruto look tired, ringing around his eyes and creating heavy bags under his eyes, deepened and cast down his cheeks. Adding to his relaxed stance, the flailing shadows that could only be sensed and not seen, the shadows on his face and the brightly shining blue eyes of the assassin, Suzu began to second guess herself.

The Nara behind him could also feel the increase in shadowy and they clamped on harder to the fence. The feeling for them didn't last too long, but it did for the nine tailed fox holder as she removed her left hand from behind her and grasped her weapon in both hands, gritting her teeth as the full brunt of the assassins killer intent fell on her like anything she had ever felt before. She swallowed thickly, large drops of sweat began rolling down her head and she could just barely keep her legs from shaking, even as Naruto cocked his head to the side slightly and lifted his left arm up to her and motioning for her to come at him. She knew what killer intent was, during the chunin exams Orochimaru had blasted it on her without mercy as he sealed away her ability to use the nine tailed fox's chakra, but this was something else, it was like she was still a child, looking into the pure blackness of the night with no hope of ever finding a light.

The girl growled under her breathe as she took a staggering step forward after five long minutes, her blue eyes flashing evil red and vulpine as she used the presence of the Kyuubi in her to repel the killer intent with each step, something that impressed Naruto. A small, slow smirk came to Naruto's face at her determination to push past his killer intent and he waited for her, watching as she gained more speed and rocketed towards him, throwing up dust and sand as she did so.

Every Nara, male or female, was born with the innate ability of strategizing. It only varied by the speed at which decisions were made, the quality of those decisions and how well they were executed; that was why the Nara was a clan well respected. It was even believed that Shikaku Nara, the clan head of the shadow manipulating clan, was such a great strategist that he was able to see ten steps into the future against any opponent he was pitted against, not unlike the sharingan. The scarred man was the commander of ANBU for a reason as well as the right hand to the Hokage in all things strategy and planning, and even though Naruto was still yet to challenge his father, the clan head, for a battle of dominance on who was the better strategist and all-round ninja, it was widely believed that Naruto had surpassed his father the moment he became a jounin at age eleven, barely a month after Shikamaru was born.

And Shikaku never did anything to stifle the rumours floating around because, deep in his complex and often sleepy mind, he knew that Naruto was a much better strategist and ninja than him, especially after returning from a solo war against the Western Empire as well as defeating two S ranks and cleanly assassinating the Kage of Ame without any help. For now Naruto wasn't interested in leading the clan, but when the day finally came for Naruto to butt heads with his father for the position of leader stag of the Nara clan he would be waiting.

Naruto's shining blue eyes analysed the quickly changing stances the girl took as she shot at him, ranging from the basic kenjutsu style sword popularly used to the Rattle Snake sword style Orochimaru made use of, to even the Broken Boken style of Whirlpool, meaning that she had clearly been doing her homework and Yugao was a great teacher as well. He counted six different styles she alternated from as she charged at him, her blue eyes getting darker with determination to overcome the Night. He looked at her blade, a heavy sabre that was created from an unknown metal he couldn't decipher at that moment but he knew for sure that it was sharp.

The assassin sidestepped the downward slash and ducked under the side slash the girl sent after the initial strike. His head shifted back as the saber wafted past his nose and he poked his sword on her stomach. The girl snarled and twirled on her right heel away from the lazy strike and sent another slash to his face, but the assassin shifted away again and used his hay sword to bat at the edge of the metal sword with enough force to have the jinchuriki spin along with it against her whim, and only stop when Naruto poked her side multiple times and ended the sequence of harmless attacks with a harsh bash to her head, forcing her face to meet the ground with enough force to rattle her teeth.

Naruto's dull eyes looked down on her prone form as he slowly walked around her, tapping his sword on the ground every once in a while, like he was suing a walking stick. "Is that all you've got? Senselessly charging at me? It seems…" he stopped at her head and used his foot to flip her onto her back, where he could see her bruised face. "It seems I overestimated you, Suzu." He then tapped her left cheek with his hay weapon and smiled. "Better luck next time, kid."

The man turned his back to her and began his walk back to his large group of friends slash clan mates, before he stopped abruptly and his eyebrows lowered ever so slowly as he looked over his shoulder. Suzu was panting as she pushed herself to her knees with her one edged sword being used as support, she huffed as she got her right foot firmly on the ground, then heaved as she got back to her feet. Her breathes came out in thick white gasps as she looked at Naruto with one eye open, her face still bruised from the deceptively strong slam to the head, which in turn bashed her face onto the ground. Naruto's eyes narrowed as he kept his eyes on her form when he felt a shroud of hazy blue chakra covered her body and coat her blade. The blood red and black saber warped as it came in contact with its users chakra and it elongated drastically, stretching and widening to about nine foot long demonic blade of unholy power.

A Zanbatou Naruto had seen a few times before.

The girl huffed as her chakra flailed around her like fire. The eerie chakra warped around her body and licked the ground, pushing the dirt away with strong winds. Suzu lifted up the Zanbatou from its position touching the ground by its tip and perched it on her shoulder. She spat out a glob of spit and glared at Naruto silently as he kept his back to her. The Nara sighed and shook his head. "This isn't the Kyuubi influencing you, I hope."

"Why don't you come and find out, _old man_." She snarled under her breathe as the gusts of wind got stronger.

"I guess I owe you that much." Seeing as you came at me when the spar started, he mentally finished as he rolled his neck once and turned to her. He began a steady jog to the chakra shrouded girl and thoughts began floating in his head; he couldn't touch her with his hay sword because he deduced that the wind would shred it like it would cut apart any other metal weapon. The weapon in Suzu's hand was a generationally passed down sword that had two stages, one was the normal form which differed according to the usual emotional temperament of the person and the second was a demon Zanbatou which was brought out by mental command. The first form of Kushina's sword was a dual katana that could split apart, but after it had been passed to Suzu by blood right when she entered the academy it changed into a saber. The ultimate form for the Uzumaki royalty direct descendant slash their passed down blade was a tricky thing to overcome with the almost sentient improvement in control and speed despite its massive size, and with the constant cycle of the girls wind affinity chakra passing through and over it would be harder. But it was a good thing that kenjutsu fights also included chakra augmentation of the body and of the weapon.

As Naruto closed in on the girl his hay sword burst into flames, which he controlled by mental and he brought it down on her head, which she guarded against but her eyes widened into large dinner plates at the massive explosion of wind that resulted in it, releasing all the chakra she had flowing in her sword and dispersing it around her in a glorious blast of harmless wind. Her Zanbatou reduced back to it true saber form and he continued hacking down on her, forcing her to shuffle backwards with each powerful strike, desperately crossing her weapon across her body to prevent her body from being burnt with fire. The wind that formerly covered her body in a cloak of dangerously sharp gusts sputtered and flickered off as he feinted his sword from slashing her right side but pulled his fire covered hay weapon in time before she could block once again to painfully jab it on her forehead.

That was the last attack and her legs lost all strength suddenly. Her arms quivered and she released hold of her weapon. Naruto pulled his sword back to him from her forehead and she fell down face first onto the ground, he had to step aside for her not to fall on him. He regarded her fallen form for a brief moment before he flipped her onto his back with his foot. "You're still need a bit more training to really use that weapon." He said to her in a low voice, watching the warring emotions of disappointment and stubborn pride roll across her face. "Practise more wind based chakra exercises along with your sword and you'll get better." He helped her up when she remained silent, even crossing her arms in a huff at how quickly she had been taken down.

"…Anything else?" she grumbled under breathe, both too proud to ask for training tips and too eager to fight him again once she got better.

"Don't let your temper overcome you; you had a plan when you came at me before, I could see it in your eyes, but you threw it away half a second later because I kept dodging your strikes." He poked her forehead with his pointer and middle finger and smiled at her. Red dusted over her cheeks and across her nose as she looked at him, transfixed, before she forced her eyes to the ground and she blubbered to herself. "But, even if I wasn't really going easy on you, you still did really well." He patted her head and gave her a warm smile, to which she replied with a wide, shaky, cheesy grin and a great lurch in her chest which just made her face all the more redder.

The assassin, still keeping his hand on her head and to which she never moved too much to shake it off, shifted to look at the other Nara in the ranch, observing as the leader stag of their group bested the Kyuubi holder, one of the best sword users of her generation.

"Who's up for brunch in the dinner hall?!" he yelled to them and they cheered back in agreement. Naruto threw his hand over the small shoulders of the much shorter, extremely flustered jinchuriki and walked with her to the direction of the clan compounds mess hall, which was where members of the clan ate after a hard day's work in the different ranches. "You're coming too; maybe you can get a few more pointers from my clan mates." The girl bobbed her head and gratefully took the presented sheathed saber she had dropped by a tendril of darkness that came out of Naruto's shadow.

As the large group of Nara shuffled towards the mess hall for food there was a large explosion to the far left of them, not big enough to harm anyone in the ground but dangerous enough to send shockwaves that shook the foundations of the houses around the source of the explosion. Instinctively Naruto pushed the younger ninja behind him and faced the explosion with squinted but empty eyes as his 'Pasty face' set in.

A mad cackle echoed around them as more Nara clans men ran out of their houses and ranches of work towards the place of the blast. A few Nara fanned out of the group to assist, mostly medics, while the rest looked around carefully for the person laughing.

"Do I have your attention now, Night?!"

Naruto heard the voice, as well as the others, and he immediately shook off the thick brown gloves on his hands and clenched his pale fists to his side as his eyes looked up, where Diedara and Sasori soared in a circle on a clay bird. Another wild laugh escaped the mouth of the mad bomber and Naruto's mind frantically traced the source of the blast to the clan heads house, where his mother was having a guest, but his father was in the Hokage's office reporting on the assassination of Nagato to Tsunade on Naruto's behalf and Shikamaru was on a B rank mission to Wind country, merely a diplomatic mission. His eyes sharply returned to Diedara and the rings of darkness around them deepened with foreboding. His posture straightened and his shadow slowly crept up his body, much to the wonder of the Nara around him, as well as Suzu, and the mild astonishment of the Akatsuki members flying around their small group. The shadow slithered down after a second to reveal him in his combat uniform, besides the flak jacket, and after a flurry of shadows covering his body his cloak appeared into sight. The thick boots on his feet was replaced by a pair of comfortable black sandals.

The Nights dead blue eyes followed the clay bird until it abruptly froze after a blazingly fast shadow burst out from his own and rocketed even higher up the sky, before it exploded into a glorious ball of fire so far up in the sky that it wouldn't affect the ground.

"Go and see if there are any injured." Naruto said to those closest to him and they too communicated this with the others as they all ran to the bonfire that had resulted from the explosion. Naruto could hear Suzu unsheathe her weapon and he spoke again. "You too."

"But-"

"I want you to go and report this to Lady Godaime," the girl prepared to reply in the negative but Naruto spoke first. "Now."

The Uzumaki ground her teeth, then nodded curtly and ran to the entrance of the clan compound, leaving Naruto to look up at the puff of thick black smoke in the air. Wordlessly a clone rose up from his shadow and began flipping through a few handseals. _"Earth style: Piercing Rock Darts."_ It droned and slammed its palms to the ground. After doing so the ground around Naruto and his clone rumbled briefly then began spitting out thick spikes to the cloud of smoke in the sky. As the darts perforated the smoke Naruto closed his eyes and thought of the next jutsu he was to use. _"Hiden art: Shadow sewing technique."_ His eyes opened again and they blazed with energy as his clone melted back to be his shadow and a single string darted out to the shadow cast by the multiple darts shooting at the heavens. Naruto got into a good running position and followed the shadows of the earth darts, as he reached the highest dart his body phased into sight on the real dart and not the shadow. The assassin spread his cloak and released a massive shadow bull at the incoming flock of clay birds that were being sent by Diedara. The shadow creature roared as it bashed through multiple explosions until it savagely slammed against the mad bomber. The animals shadow shimmered as its body became less tangible before it morphed into a clone of Naruto, which pulled out a kunai from the well of darkness of its cloak and slit the former Iwa ninjas throat in one clean swipe and dragged another line of blood from his throat again after another slice, just to be sure, while Naruto glided around far above them, keeping track of Sasori as he flew around in fan-like metallic wings that sprouted out of his back and arms.

Naruto's lips tightened at the evasion tactics Sasori was using, throwing poison laced senbon and kunai at him from his mouth while flying around with the hope of tiring Naruto out. The Nara clapped his hands together and flashed through a set of seals as he gradually descended from the sky. _"Fire style: Cursed Red Amaterasu."_ He held up the _tiger_ hand to the bottom of his lips, dragged in as much air his lungs could carry and blew. Fire, dark and evil enough to leave imprints in the minds that saw it, escaped from Naruto's mouth and warped through the air towards Sasori, who kept throwing weapons but only for them to get incinerated by the S rank flames of the Nara assassin. The puppet master unsealed his most prized puppet, the Third Kazekage puppet, and had it cover him in its metal sand. The sentient flames surrounded the wooden man in a ball of super-hot fire, sputtering and rippling as Naruto continued breathing it out. The unranked jounin ceased his attack and glided with his cloak towards the fire, which allowed him entry easily.

The man touched down on the solid sand ball and a tendril of darkness touched the ball, seeing as his hands were still in the _tiger_ handseal. He could _feel_ the shadows and the darkness move around inside the metal ball but he couldn't control them because there weren't any openings for him to capitalize on, so he decided to make his own; he jumped up a little and washed more godly fire down, this time on the protective ball Sasori had around him. The effect was that the sand solidified together and a continued blast of the flames hardened it so much that it began to break apart. Naruto forced his cloak back to him so he wouldn't glide in the air and he dropped straight down on the puppet of the Kazekage, who immediately wrapped him up in its iron sand. Naruto melted out of the hold flowed down through the miniscule shadows on the puppets body, every place he passed by was severed off and dispersed into ash after bursting into flames, until he got to the chakra strings before he reappeared again before the aghast and horrified puppet master, even more horrified as several tendrils of darkness from the assassins cloak crushed his metal wings.

Sasori looked at the dead eyed assassin with wide eyes as his arms fell limp to his side, both plummeting down to the earth, which was still miles below them. "So you are as strong as they say you are."

Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly but kept his hands to his side as he fell, the wind flapped and thrashed against his hair and the bottom of his cloak but the shadow summons construct never flew open. The Nara ignored the question and said. "Is my mother still alive?"

If the bomb had killed her…

His fists tightened beneath his cloak and he reigned in his emotions.

Sasori shook his head. "No, she is safe."

"Good. Where is she?"

"Our new leader, Uchiha Madara, has taken your whole family, Shikaku, Yoshino and Shikamaru Nara, and is holding them hostage."

"I assume he wants the rinnegan in my possession." The puppet man nodded. The ground was approaching and the red head could see the dead body of the mad bomber lying on the ground, bleeding profusely from his neck. The body of the former Iwa ninja was a mere speck on the ground but they were shinobi; their eyes were accustomed to seeing far distance objects. "Where can I find them?"

"_You_ know where they are." He replied. "He will begin cutting up their bodies starting from their hands in five minutes if you don't show up."

Naruto's lips screwed to the side. "I see…are there any more of you 'Akatsuki' in Konoha?"

"No. They are with Madara, waiting for you." The ground was closing in on them faster and faster and Sasori closed his eyes in resignation. "It was nice meeting you…Night."

Naruto stared at the puppet man before he responded. "And you too, Sasori." And he flared out his cloak, slowing him down drastically but Sasori smashed into the ground feet first and exploded into many pieces of shattered wood. Naruto's feet touched down safely and he had a clone capture the cylindrical object lying on the ground labelled 'heart'. He dropped it to his feet and stepped on it without hesitation, destroying the heart of the puppet master and killing him for good. Naruto hummed in thought as he looked around, idly taking Diedara's shadow and storing it in his Night Dimension. "You want the rinnegan huh."

The Valley of End, he thought briefly as his shadow shot away from him and pinged against several objects, Naruto's body flickered away with it in a _"Hiden art: Chain Shadow Teleportation."_

**Authors note**

**Things be getting dark.**

**Drop a review if you want to see the next chapter, those help a lot, just so you know :)**

**Stay safe, wherever you are in this world, follow me on Tumblr at **_**ghost-of-foy**_** and I will see you when I see you.**

**Foy.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks for all your wonderful, amazing reviews on this humble story; I really appreciate all the love :)**

**A review got to me a little and I can't help but answer the questions asked there, so pardon me; first Shikaku and Yoshino are Naruto's biological parents, the blonde in his black hair is a natural, genetic defect. I don't want to delve into family history and the fact there could be a blonde Nara ancestor somewhere along the Shukaku's lineage or Yoshino's lineage. No matter how I write a story, someone would always think I'm going too fast, even if I take time to write re-bonding over chess between brothers, interrogation from a father, lunch with family, shopping in a supermarket, etc. I don't do time skips more than four to twelve hours in this story. Nagato's death so soon has nothing to do with it; if I started this from Naruto's childhood it would have been close to chapter twenty he died, if I started as soon as Hidan and Kakuzu were killed then maybe chapter two or three. I'm just going at my own pace. But the last part (of your review) gave me an idea, which I will say in the next chapter (I guess). So thank you ****ij0nk**** for the fantastic review of your thoughts of my story.**

**Keep em coming.**

**Enjoy :)**

CHAPTER SIX

**Darkness of the Night**

**Two hours before the last chapter**

**Hidden Cave**

**The Valley of End**

**Fire country**

Paranoia could not even begin to describe what the orange masked Uchiha was going through even hours after his encounter with the Night, Naruto Nara.

As he stalked back and forth in the dim main room of the hidden cave in the Valley of End he felt a pair of eyes on him as he moved, silent and ever so diligent in following him. His unspinning red eye looked at the surgical table he had been operated on when he was a teenager and they just barely caught sight of the shadow beneath the table shuffling, then he remembered that the lamps planted in the walls were ablaze and could be the cause of the moving shadows.

This didn't calm him down though, rather it increased his mental war on whether or not the elusive Night had found a way to tag along without him knowing. Every shadow was moving as he spiralled on the spot, voices began bouncing around his head, voices of those he once loved but those he had hand in killing. The Uchiha clasped his hands to his head and screamed as loud as his lungs would allow, a deep unearthly bellow that resonated through the room, passed the main corridor and filled the Valley with the yell of a tormented man.

Obito bashed his masked face against the wall and yelled again, even loud and more unsettling than the last, sending fearful chills down the back of the Zetsu as he observed Madara's protégé slowly lose his mind to fearful paranoia. Obito fell onto his knees and bellowed, clawing at his orange mask with savage fingers, enough to leave jagged marks winding down his forehead to his chin with his nails.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Zetsu had to cover his ear holes at the animalistic scream of the Uchiha.

"WHERE ARE YOU NIGHT! I KNOW YOU'RE HERE! COME OUT NOW!"

This was a lot worse than yesterday; immediately after Obito escaped the Night with a kamui his mental senses kept prodding that he was being watched. The prodding and poking became too much for the mentally fortified man and he crumbled close to the pits of insanity.

He was _positive_ the Night was in the room.

_Positive_.

And no matter how hard he kept explaining it to Zetsu he always felt like he was losing grip on reality.

The thing was…Obito was right, the Night was with him in the room, specifically a small portion of his shadow that was much too small for him to teleport into but large enough to keep track of Obito's location by creating a single blue eye to watch the Uchiha lose his mind. It was when he had made a hasty retreat with his kamui that it happened; the shadow tendrils from Naruto's cloak that made to attack him were close enough to get sucked in but not close enough to physically reach Obito. Naruto was aware that his shadow was not complete after it had happened and decided that if Obito became a challenge to him then he would always know how to find him, no matter how far or how hard he ran, because Naruto's shadow merged with Obito's…and was also responsible for slowly destroying the Uchiha's mental shields from manipulation by scratching against the barrier shielding his memory and planting itself in influential phases of his life, like he had been watching Obito in the dark even as far back as when he was a child to when he was being trained by Madara.

The feeling terrified Obito, even though a small part of his still sane mind told him that those memories were false and planted. Obito could not say that when he was a shinobi of the leaf he was very close to Naruto; he was more of mutual friends with him through Rin and Kakashi, this was because no matter how hard he tried and no matter how welcoming Naruto made himself to be, a friend to all and the best son slash brother any living creature would ever ask for, he couldn't muster up the courage to meet Naruto and become his real friend for one reason and one reason only.

He was afraid of the Night.

Obito of the past was a loud and annoying boy that had questionable head gear fashion and an undying crush on his teammate; _that_ Obito could not allow himself to be afraid of his own age mate. _That_ Obito was not a complete idiot because his heritage as an Uchiha made it partly easy for him to master jutsu and fighting styles, he could even go as far as say that he would rank himself among the top five shinobi of his generation.

It was that a voice that constantly reverberated in his told him that Naruto wasn't all sleepy smiles and warm, friendly companionship. Naruto became a genin at age eight, despite the unambitious nature his clan had practically patented, he became a chunin at nine, a special jounin at ten and a full jounin at eleven, and he already had the moniker of the Night when he was a chunin for his mastery of his clans shadow manipulation. It was subtle but Obito could clearly see that the Night was a big influence in his clan, and their generation as a whole; Naruto had a big circle of friends that listened to him and, for the most part, followed after his lead. The Nara commanded respect for his friendliness and charisma more than his reputation. Naruto was a good son to Shikaku and Yoshino and a great big brother to Shikamaru, always finding time in his hectic schedule to be with them. The Nidaime Hokage recognised the genius in Naruto from a young age during a visit to the Nara clan compound after Naruto had been born.

In the same words as the legendary water using Kage, Naruto was "Already ready to take on the world."

The Sandaime held Naruto in high regard, the Sannin, all three of them, spoke well of them, but Orochimaru chose to keep his high regards for the Night to himself and rather show it by being mildly hospitable with Naruto.

By all definitions Naruto was the perfect human being, but Obito knew better. After their very first class in the academy Obito had asked Naruto for a small spar in the academy training grounds. They had both just celebrated their seventh birthdays and Obito felt bolstered by the fact that he was a few months older than Naruto that he was also much stronger than the 'genius child' of the Nara clan. The 'spar' forever left a scar in his psyche that never healed; Naruto, deciding that Obito was truly a strong opponent because he was an Uchiha able to use the sharingan, chose to let loose. He started off by using a watered down, childish version of his current 'Pasty face' and release all the killer intent his small body was capable of, which was too much for the Uchiha challenger.

Obito crumpled onto his knees and passed out a minute later, in front of all the other kids that had come to watch the clan heads son fight against an Uchiha. When he woke up again he was labelled an idiot for the remainder of his time in the academy, despite showing that he was at least a competent student.

Normally he should have been enraged at being made a fool of but he wasn't. He was afraid. He saw his own death in the pitch darkness of the night and all he could do was stand in place and accept it.

When he heard Naruto had disappeared he capitalized on it as well as he could by moving forward the agenda of the S rank criminal organisation by manipulating Nagato to begin collecting tailed beasts, because, deep in his _soul_, Obito knew that if anyone was capable of destroying all he had done, it was the Night.

The Night effortlessly killed Hidan and Kakuzu.

The Night destroyed all six Paths of Pein.

The Night cleanly assassinated the god of Ame, Nagato.

The Night was in possession of the rinnegan.

All these seemingly small actions to the grander scheme were enough to send cold chills down the spine of Obito. The Uchiha thought that his fear of the Night had been reduced after so many years of his disappearance, but the paranoia of being watched was enough to bring back old demons.

The man ripped off his mask and threw it to the ground, it shattered at the sheer effort he used. He faced the silent plant man and said in a low, intimidating voice. "Call the others."

Zetsu nodded and entered into the ground, leaving Obito to simmer in his own madness. The Uchiha steadily got to his feet and slowly proceeded to a section of the dull grey stone walls, where he pressed his hand against it and a panel opened, revealing an assortment of masks he had worn for the past years and a few more he was yet to use. His shaking hands gently brushed against each one before he selected one, a white mask with both eyeholes present that had two concentric circles winding out from the nose area, which had a single black dot, to the forehead and chin, the second circle had three tomoe, one for both eyes and the last on the forehead. There were three more concentric circles spiralling outside of the first two but a little bit further back. He placed it on his face securely and marched out of the room, and out of the cave to stand on the water. The newly masked man walked up the walls to stand on the head of his mentor and sat down patiently, shoving down the twitch in his body at being constantly watched.

"Oi idiot, who are you to call for a meeting?" the masked man heard. Obito turned around and Diedara smirked sharply at the new mask, even better than the last one.

"Yet here you are." Obito replied smoothly and walked to Diedara, stopping when he was about a foot away from the mad bomber.

"I just wanted to beat you up for wasting my time; I was attending to serious business." Sasori silently observed the radically changed masked man before him; Kisame and Itachi too narrowed their eyes at the great change. Of course the Zero tailed beast and the Bloody Uchiha knew who 'Tobi' really was and what he could do, it was just…different.

"Diedara, Diedara, Diedara…" Obito said in a low, lilting voice as she shook his head. "If Hidan was still with us you wouldn't be the weakest in this group, but you are. Did you know that?"

The mad bomber bared his teeth and his fists clenched. "And who the hell do you think _you_ are? What makes _you_ an S rank?"

Obito swiftly ignored the question. "I want you all to earn your ranks." He turned his head to the others, even Zetsu, as he spoke.

"You haven't answered-" suddenly the Uchiha's hand shot forward and grabbed the former Iwa ninja by his throat, lifting him off his feet in an almost surprising display of strength. "Gack! Urk!"

"I'm almost tempted to snap your neck in two. You aren't the right one to do this without getting yourself killed. Bombs cannot harm the Night."

"'Bombs can't harm the night'? What's that supposed to mean?" Kisame asked, not caring about the state of the former Iwa ninja; he was more concerned with thinking of what had triggered Tobi to drop his idiot guise.

"I want you all to go to Konoha and kidnap the Night family; Shikaku and Yoshino Nara are there and Shikamaru Nara is in Suna on a mission. I'll handle the brat, I want you four to bring the older ones here, alive and restrained. Sasori and _this one_ are to get the attention of the Night; he knows how to find me." they knew who the masked man was referring to as 'Night'; he same person that had burnt through their ranks by killing the Zombie brothers and the god of Ame with his paths. Naruto Nara was the biggest problem the organization had ever encountered. The Akatsuki was no more, with Ameagakure no longer being their base seeing as Konan had fortified the rain barrier to trap those without the Rain village chakra signature, no matter how little in the individual. This was a big blow because the Gedo statue was in Ame and they had no way of accessing it, except Zetsu and Obito but teleporting the statue through the ground or with a kamui could make it unstable. Killing Konan and changing the defence seal matrix of the village was another problem entirely; the paper Angel had taken to using paper clones more and more recently, after she had escaped a broken neck from the Night with one. Killing a paper clone could result in one or two things; the clone would explode or the entire village would come down on their heads; Rain was a great village with great shinobi, one of the best on the continent.

With the Gedo statue so far away from retrieval and the entire continent now fully aware of the threat of the Akatsuki, from the many letters the Hokage and the Kazekage were sending to other nations, ally or not, it was now a hard time to be an S rank in the criminal organization. It was also the time for Itachi to defect, because he had been given the sign to do so from Jiraiya and Tsunade, but after hearing that the masked Uchiha codenamed Tobi intended to take the Nights parents he persevered and stayed, just to see if he could be of any help to Naruto. The genius among geniuses, Naruto Nara, was much older than Itachi and far more accomplished. It was why Itachi idolized the blonde-black haired man. Lending a hand to the Night in any way, if it was making sure his parents and brother were safe or by killing a few of the S ranks was the least the Uchiha could do. But first he had to bring Naruto's parents to the Valley of End so he had a better chance of eradicating all of the threats, and maybe give his unknowing mentor, because Naruto wasn't too aware that Itachi had been learning from him, even more reason to rip the others apart. At least, that's the feeling he was getting from Obito; strike the Night where it would hurt the most.

Kisame was deep in thought, much like his partner, Itachi; he might be thick headed but he was far from stupid, so he nodded with his partner, Itachi.

Obito glared at the choking former Iwa ninja in his grip. "_You_. I know how the Night would end your miserable life; your throat slashed and forgotten like a pile of dog crap in a waste disposal." He didn't care that the blonde bomber was weakly clawing at his hand, pleading with his eyes to release him. "At least put up a fight before he kills you." He released Diedara and watched as the blonde gasped for air, dragging in precious oxygen into his lungs and feebly glaring at Obito. "Now leave."

The bomber stumbled away from Obito and dug his hands into his pockets, forcing clay into his hand mouths. He pulled his hands out and formed a large clay bird, which Sasori, Kisame and Itachi hopped onto, before Diedara stepped on it and commanded it to fly to Konoha.

"Tell the Night." Obito began with a raised voice to the steadily departing Akatsuki members. "I will start cutting his family, piece by piece, if he doesn't show up in five minutes."

He didn't receive any answer, but he knew they heard him.

"How are you going **to bring Shikamaru her**e? Suna isn't exactly close to this **place, you know**." Zetsu asked sceptically but his question was answered when a kamui vortex opened up from the Uchiha's right eye and the youngest Nara brother was spat out. The masked Uchiha then stepped on Shikamaru's back, before the latter could leap onto his feet, and Zetsu took that as his cue to summon plant tendrils from the ground to tie up the Nara, making sure his hands were separated and his mouth was covered, though this didn't stifle the enraged yells and the death glare from the fourteen year old boy.

"Well tha**t's convenient**." Zetsu grunted after making sure his plant trap was securely binding the Nara.

Kidnapping two prominent figures in Konoha was not going to be an easy task, not by a long shot. For Shikaku, Itachi and Kisame had to wait for him to leave the tower and pass through the red light district as he made his way into the market district to do some grocery shopping for his wife before they made. Itachi cast a genjutsu over the entire section of road that the council man was walking down, making those around see that Shikaku continue walking to the clan compound and the man feel like he was already in the clan compound, grocery bag at the ready to give his wife, but with one glaring problem that mad the veteran shinobi know it was an illusion; Yoshino didn't nag him about taking his sweet time to return, assuming he had taken a nap in the grocery isle of the supermarket. It was an unspoken tradition that both never intended to break. The black haired, scarred man clapped his hands together and forced his chakra out of his body, but as the chakra bubbled out, pushing away the foreign chakra in his system and closing in on those of the civilians under the illusion. Though before the dispelled chakra could clear from the civilians system Itachi made his appearance abruptly in front of Shikaku, quick and unexpected enough to make the man look straight at Itachi into his spinning sharingan eyes.

Kisame pouted all the way back at not doing anything as they took the waiting clay bird outside of the village.

Yoshino wasn't much easier than her husband; the woman had retired from active shinobi duty after Naruto became a chunin, when she pregnant with Shikamaru. Despite not participating in any _formal_ spar, no one wanted to count the almost frequent beating she gave her husband, the woman was still in great shape; she had been in the Best Figure in Konoha Women's Weekly for three months running, right in front of Hime Yakumo, Yuuhi Kureanai and Nomi Yamanaka, wife of the Yamanaka clan head. Best figure didn't only mean the way the Nara clan heads wife had the most desirable body in the village, a fact most men and women had to suppress for fear of death by her _incredibly_ lucky (and proud) husband, but that she had managed to keep the muscles she had built from her days of active duty, as well as a limited amount of combat prowess.

She used her cooking knife to deflect multiple poison tipped senbon, moving her hand in a blur and slowly inching her other hand behind her, under the kitchen table, in a hidden compartment beside the cooking stove, to grab a pair of gleaming forearm length silver kunai. She spun both long knives in her left hand and slammed a savage kick at Diedara's abdomen, who attempted to sneak attack her from her left. The blow stunned the man bomber enough for the woman to carefully analyse the insistent senbon; she tilted her cooking knife downwards and position both of her silver kunai under the weapon, the next wave clanged downward and pinged off the kunai and returned right back into the puppet masters open left arm. She did not have time to revel in her minor victory, a swift fist to the back of her head and she was felled, her weapons kicked away from her frantically grabbing hands. Before she was allowed to pass out Diedara kicked her against the solid oak cabinet used to store pots without mercy, seven brutal times until he was dragged back by his wooden partner, for him to shoot a knock-out senbon to her neck to release her of her pained agony. Her bruised, slightly cut unconscious body was fed to a clay bird, which flew back to Obito.

Then they blew up the Nara clan heads residence.

Shikaku was furious after seeing the state his wife was in, biting at his plant mouth bind and struggling in his restraints like a wild animal, shocking Shikamaru that his sleepy, lax father could lose it so easily at seeing his mother in her pitiful state. Not that he was any better; both Nara men spat venomously at the quiet masked man who stood in front of the others, also looking at the state Yoshino was in in silence. Obito slowly turned his eyes to them, sharingan blazing, and they caught the deep amusement set in his eyes. He walked up to Shikaku, who fought even more against his bindings to rip apart the mastermind behind the kidnapping and said.

"You only have the Night to blame." Shukaku's eyes became even more bloodshot after the moniker of his oldest son and his muscled arms bulged in effort, clenching his eyes as he focused on tearing out of the plant tendrils holding him.

Then everyone froze.

"Your right…this is my fault. I'm sorry dad, mom, Shika. This is won't happen again." A voice said lowly as breeze gently began blew, the top of Madara's head never shook but the dark, solemn feeling that made the air thick made all, even the captive family of the Night.

Kisame growled. "I…I can't move."

The sun that shone down cast their shadows in front of them, so they could all see the clones of the Night slither out of the ground like phantoms of the dark, their bright blue eyes dark and lowered to the ground as they shaggy blonde-black hair shifted with the wind. Even Zetsu wasn't safe from the shadowy hold Naruto had on all of them, all attempts at fleeing were for nought because his whole body didn't allow him to move.

Then all the clones looked up at the same time and a great pulse of energy riffled their cloaks violently as Naruto release his grip on his killer intent. The real Naruto stepped out from behind the clone holding Obito, wielding a katana in his right hand and his eyes as dark and evil as his clones. His eyes roved from the frozen masked man to Kisame, then to Itachi. A sharp frown twitched down from his lips. "Where does your loyalty lie, Itachi?"

"Konoha." was the simple reply and Naruto nodded curtly, Konan had mentioned that Itachi was also a spy in the organization.

The shark man spat. "Traitor." His eyes shot to the shorter ninja beside him and they clashed with the eternally activated sharingan of the Bloody Uchiha.

"…Yes." He felt his shadow return back to its original form and he fully turned to Kisame. "For what it's worth, Kisame, you were a competent shinobi."

"Fuck you." The man spat and the clone holding him pulled both of its arms out of the abyss of darkness that was his cloak, a kunai in its grip, and slashed it across the throat of the shark man, flipping the a small chain of seals, Kisame did so as well but without using chakra in the seals, and his body summarily solidified into rocks. Kisame followed suit. The water that made up ninety seven percent of his body was countered by the _Earth style: Earth Assassination technique_ used by the Nara clan. Itachi pulled out a tanto from his sleeve and jammed it into the head of the frozen, stone clone, a sharp cut appeared on Kisame's head, leaking deep red blood, signifying the end of the Zero tailed beast. After watching the way the shark man had been easily taken care of, as well as how quickly Itachi had sealed the sentient Samehada sword into the crumbling body of its dead wielder, he renewed his struggles against the strong shadow hold the clone had on him. The clone looked from the last assassination to the plant man.

As Naruto slowly walked to Zetsu the clone began its own set of handseals, each seal was like a death clock counting down to his destruction as Zetsu also flowed through the same seals, until the last seal, a _tiger_ seal, finished everything up and the body of the clone ignited, Zetsus body burst into flames as well and the plant man was not even allowed the body movement of thrashing around in pain, only his screams of agony filled the valley. Naruto stopped beside him and watched, patiently, as the plant creature melted with the clone, until it was nothing more than a pile of goo on the ground did Naruto stab his blade down into it, slicing the good up into five equal parts and clapping his hands together, sealing each part into a section of the blade, where it would roam in the Night Dimension forever, unable to escape or contact the outside world.

As this was going on the plants holding the Nara family crumbled with its summoner, releasing them, but only Shikaku rushed to catch his wife before she hit the ground, observing as Naruto moved to their masked kidnapper, take over the shadow from the clone.

"Do you have any regrets?" Naruto asked after a long moment of silence. The blonde-black haired assassin genuinely wanted to know where the masked mans plans had all gone up in smoke; from when he, Naruto, was introduced into the mix or when he, Obito, kidnapped his family.

"Only one." Obito replied as a full blown smile spread on his hidden face. "Never proving myself to you when I was in Konoha."

"What-"

Obito's eyes spiralled madly and merged together to form its elevated version. _"Mangekyo sharingan: Kamui: World in-between."_

For Naruto's family, they only saw Naruto disappear in a whirlwind along with the masked man, but to Naruto he was savagely thrown around by the wind vortex, until the quick movements stopped all of a sudden and Naruto found his feet planted on a greyish-white stone floor.

He noticed with a lurch that his cloak was gone, as well as the feeling of being connected to shadows. Naruto looked down and his eyes enlarged when he saw that his shadow was not under him, he looked to the sky and saw that there was no sun or moon, not even clouds; just an unexplainable light. His combat uniform was still on his body and he was a hundred percent sure that he wasn't in a genjutsu, sharingan or not all genjutsu weren't undetectable. The Night looked at his hands, feeling his chakra still flowing easily through his chakra network, and there wasn't anything wrong with his body as far as he knew, his weapon storage seals were still intact too. The only thing was that he was now without his shadow, and thus the Night Dimension and the perks of using shadow manipulation.

Far in front of him Naruto heard a deep laugh and he sharply looked up. "What is the Night without darkness?" he said aloud, his voice carried back to Naruto, who straightened up, noticing as the masked man reached up and unclasped his mask. Naruto's eyes narrowed when he saw that it was Obito, bleeding profusely from his left eye. "Nothing."

"Where am I?"

Obito threw his arms open and replied. "This is the World In-between, a destination of my own creation I made just for this very occasion." He smirked when Naruto remained silent. "Here, the Night has no advantage of the shadows. Your crutch is gone, Naruto."

"My bloodline is not my crutch." Naruto shot back.

"I bet you regret our spar all those years ago. Little ol' Obito wasn't there to be your punching bag and you moved on to better prey, right?"

"I always thought you were a friend, Obito." Naruto said with a sigh, closing his eyes in disappointment. "Always. Even when you never accepted to hang-out with me, I didn't stop trying to bring you in."

The Uchiha lost all composure, swiping his sleeve over the bloody side of his face and throwing his cloak away when he was done. "Lies! The Night is evil! The Night has no need for friends! You just wanted to brainwash me like you did to the others, like you did to your own family!" Naruto still kept his eyes shut; his shoulders slumped at how far gone Obito was. "When I kill you the world would be free of your illusion! Your curse would be lifted and when I bring back my master; we will rule the world! I will bring Rin back! Did you hear me, Night?! I will have Rin!"

"Obito…" Naruto began, opening his eyes but keeping them on the ground as the natural shadows around his eyes, showing years of sleepless nights he had during his war with the West, darkened as he clenched his fists at his sides. "Don't make me do this."

The Uchiha laughed, a blood chilling sound that worsened Naruto's mood. "Don't make you do what, Night?"

"Don't make me kill you." Naruto finished. The logical part of his hazy mind told him that if he wanted to return back to the real world then he would have to end the person that cast the jutsu. He hoped. He didn't want to kill the other man, but he would if it meant he could return back home.

Naruto attended Obito's burial and consoled Kakashi and Rin. He was far away, picking off shinobi of Iwagakure in Hiruzen Sarutobi's team, along with Asuma, Yugao, Ibiki, Gai and Ebisu. They were miles away and too occupied to spare a few hands to help, even as the distress signal was sent by Rin to any neighbouring shinobi team for back up. Naruto regretted not trying harder to make Obito his friend, because despite making a name for himself Naruto was nothing without his friends and his family. That was the type of person he was, and now that Obito had brought to light the warped sense of reality he had kept of him for so long he finally understood. Although Naruto didn't want to think that Obito had allowed depression and despair to linger among his living teammates, before Rin was killed as well, just to prepare for another fight with him. He did though know that, behind all the plans for gathering all the tailed beast, and this mysterious master Obito was talking about, the formerly thought to be dead Uchiha always held dark intentions for Naruto, because the seven year old him had thought it was a good idea to begin a friendly spar with a full blown dose of killer intent fuelled by his unique shadow manipulation.

With an even worse sense of dread Naruto finally, truly, understood; Obito feared the Night because of the things his killer intent made him see under its influence, when the Uchiha was nothing more than a child.

"I'm not afraid of the Night anymore. I'm stronger than I was back then. The Night has no power over me." they both got into their respective fighting styles. Obito into the Uchiha taijutsu stance and Naruto into the Nara assassin taijutsu stance; lowering his centre of gravity slightly by bending his knees a little, which were shoulder length apart, lifting both of his arms palm up at his side at first before he pushed them outwards and turning them palm down, making sure to bend his elbows, his left leg further forward than his right and his right palm further forward than the left.

Obito's now solitary sharingan eye spun in anticipation. 

Outside the World In-between Shikaku glared at Itachi and said in a deep voice. "What happened to him?" Itachi replied as best as he could and the father felt all strength leave his arms, but he made sure to hold his wife in a comfortable bridal style. "Take us there." He ordered.

The oldest son of the late Uchiha clan head didn't reply for a moment, until he said. "I can't."

"Why not!?" Shikamaru yelled.

Itachi's eyes lost their usual stoniness and became grim as he replied.

All the way back in Konoha, barely even a second after Obito and Naruto had disappeared from sight, Tsunade sat back in shock, her curious gaze on a small scroll that had appeared in a puff of smoke in the very centre of the room, there was a small piece of black string that held the scroll from unravelling. Even from her desk the Hokage could clearly read on thing written on a small tag on the string holding the scroll shut in bright red ink.

_For Shikamaru._

_Of __**S**__ rank importance._

**Authors note**

**Who wants to see Naruto fight? Just him and Obito, no shadow manipulations.**

**Done forget, Obito still has all his abilities while Naruto lost his bloodline, but Obito only has one sharingan eye because using that World In-between jutsu burned it. Take note, it's a Mangekyo.**

**What's in the scroll? Why is it to Shikamaru? Any guess would be great, so leave it in the review.**

**Next chapter is going to be the last one, who wants to read it? But So far, how am I doing? Kindly tell me in the reviews and if you'd like to see the last chapter of this story. I hope your all safe, wherever you are in the world and I will see you when I see you :)**

**Foy.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I know someone in the Narutoverse already has a green Susanno, I think it's Shisui, but for this story so will Obito ;)**

**It's one of my shortest chapters so far (for this story, that is)**

**This last chapter…oof…I…I don't even know what to say. Just…it's been a fun ride and I really enjoyed writing this story (if that fact isn't already obvious). I don't want to spoil how it ends. So yeah…**

**Enjoy.**

CHAPTER SEVEN

**The End of the Night**

What is the Night without darkness?

Nothing.

No.

You get Naruto.

Night and Naruto were one and the same, but with one small difference.

Night was the Nara assassin's easy mode, while Naruto, the man _behind_ the shadows, was the hard mode. Being Night and utilizing shadow manipulation to its fullest gave Naruto's victims a much faster, less painful way of dying. He didn't have to put too much thought before he manifested a tentacle of darkness from his cloak to rip out the heart of his opponents. Faster and easier for the person, but when he made the active effort to not use his bloodline in a fight, friendly spar or not, Naruto, the man behind the Night, was a totally different person.

There were many ways to describe him if Naruto fought without his bloodline which could also in turn describe him as Night; efficient, smart, fast, careful, cunning and even deceptive, but one word overpowered the rest so much so that those he clashed with as Naruto felt the word resonate in their very souls as they lay on the ground, looking up at the figure of darkness hovering over them.

Merciless.

Naruto's eyes squinted a little more as he ground his teeth, his bent arms tensed and his legs strengthened powerfully in his stance, enough to crack the ground beneath his feet a little. At first white vapour rose off from his skin and his clothes, before the vapour darkened into smoke, but only by a little. The Nara's blue eyes twitched and spun within their sockets, specks of red joined in at the edges of his iris before the spinning motion stopped, leaving his blue eyes corrupted by toxic and evil red, shimmering like ruby fragments in the edge of his iris, but never reaching in to fully overcome the blue. Naruto relaxed his clenched teeth and his right foot, set a little bit behind his left leg, twitched a bit to the right and Obito's eyes widened as Naruto seemingly vanished into thin air, with the thin black smoke going with him, only to reappear before him, his eyes not fully on fire but with the edges deep red and the centre a bright blue.

Obito's lone working sharingan could barely keep track of the flash movement as he lifted up his left shin to block Naruto's snap kick, making sure to augment his limbs with chakra because Naruto was obviously doing so as well. As the first attack was blocked the after effect of Naruto zipping through the air so fast slammed into their position like a herd of bulls. The spot Naruto ran from cracked a path straight to Naruto and before it could finally meet Naruto, the blonde-black haired man tightened his left fingers together and thrust them to Obito. The Uchiha just barely shifted his chest away from the stabbing attack and he could feel the blizzard of fire that had billowed out from the fingers of the Nara assassin, enough to make the hairs on his neck stand and shrivel up.

This time Obito finally got control of his shock at Naruto not holding back in the least, the _Five Fingered Fire_ _attack_ that had been used was testament to that fact. His left knee rose up to jam into Naruto's stomach but the Nara brought his right palm down onto Obito's knee to force it back down, singeing the clothes of his knees but not the skin because the Uchiha was still protecting his body with chakra. Naruto followed the last attack by thrusting the back of his right hand at Obito, which was dodged and slapped off course even more by a strong forearm. Naruto spun under the overhead kick that intended to lop off his head and extended his own right leg to trip Obito, but was avoided. Obito leaped away once, to get his breathe back, and shot back to Naruto, who was waiting for him with a fiery _Five Fingered Fire_ _attack_ to his diaphragm.

The Uchiha gasped in shock and spat out blood from his mouth as the fire tunnelled through his stomach and blasted out of his back with the intensity of the first fire blast. Obito managed to gain control of his body quickly and drove his left elbow into the throat of the assassin, the full brunt of the attack was blocked by a well-timed bat with Naruto's free hand but the effect was a pulse of chakra strong enough to throw them apart as Naruto's fire affinity clashed against Obito's fire affinity.

Both skidded apart, Naruto returned back to his fighting style stance as his sandals struggled to regain traction on the ground and Obito clutching the wound to his diaphragm, which was much too low to meet his heart or scrape his spine but still incredibly painful. The Uchiha closed his left eye, his dead sharingan eye, tightly and his other sharingan swirled intensely, so fast that Naruto could almost hear it. His sharingan caught sight of Naruto slowly moving through his stance, steadily moving his tightly held fingers through the air, both hands moving in circular motions that left spirally trails of thin smoke after them. Obito panted as he held his wound, willing his sharingan to heal it as quickly as possible, until Naruto stopped his motions after three spiral revolutions, slapped both of his hands together and pushed both smoky spirals at his Uchiha opponent by hitting his spread palms in the centre of the spirals.

"_Fire style: Smoke Stack."_

Two columns of smoke warped out from the two smoke stacks and surged to Obito, who grit his teeth and released his wound. His Mangekyo shone and the Uchiha pushed his right palm forward, a toxic green arm, armoured right from the upper forearm right to the knuckles, manifested after the swing and caught both smoke stacks. The Uchiha's sharingan spun in his sockets and, ever so steadily, more parts of his toxic green Susanno came into being; the segmented armoured torso, the samurai like shoulder pads and torso armour, the other arm. Then the head, swaddled in a fiery green helm that hid all its features besides its sparkling green eyes.

Naruto's eyes widened at the Susanno and he cancelled his jutsu just as a massive sword came down on him. The assassin flipped backwards, covering his face with his forearms as the backlash of the last attack hit him with rocks and dust. The Nara's eyes sparkled with red and blue, twitching every once in a while until he slid aside from a sparkling white arrow that had intended to impale him to the ground. He hopped over one, detecting the burst of chakra as it burst through the thick cloud of dust formed by the sword attack, but as he was about to land he dragged his left arm away from another arrow, though this heavenly weapon skimmed over his arm, cracking against his elbow before it slammed into the ground.

The assassin held in the hiss of pain that tried to crawl up his throat and sealessly switched with a pile of rocks as a massive fist came down on his position, crushing the rocks into dust. Naruto rolled his left arm and growled under his breathe when he realized that his elbow was dislocated, but nothing broken, only slightly burnt; he snapped his arm sharply, knocking his elbow back into place. The red and blue of his eyes glowed and he flowed through four hand seals.

"_Fire style: Cursed Red Amaterasu."_

Like with Sasori, Naruto held up the _tiger_ hand seal up to his bottom lip and blasted demonic fire through the flames. He was confident that the mid S rank fire would deal damage, even a little, to the celestial armour. He had only read legends of it but he never really thought he would see one in the flesh in his life time. His red flames cut through the dust but despite that he kept blowing out more. A second later, black flames mixed with his own and a tussle of dominance ensued between the two similar fire attacks, until the black won out, forcing Naruto to cut off his red amaterasu flames and run lengthwise before he could get scorched with the black fire.

A plan came to him and the assassin ran his fingers up his left sleeve, pulling up the sleeve in the process and channelling chakra into a storage seal there, smoothly pulling out a standard katana blade with a simple red handle. He needed to get through the dust and attack Obito directly, so with that in mind he ran headlong through the thinning dust. He swerved as he ran as another blade came down on him, manoeuvring away as more arrows thudded around him until he broke through the dust and beheld the green behemoth that had been attacking him, controlled by the lone eyed Uchiha standing at its centre.

The Susanno sported four arms, the two left arms held the bow, the top right was empty but the bottom right held a glowing white sword. Naruto didn't take too much time looking at the chakra creation; he kept hurtling to Obito, dodging each strike, his katana slowly beginning to shine hot red, until he reached the belly of the beast, in front of Obito and he stabbed his blade forward. _"One Fingered Fire attack."_

As the tip of the katana clanged against the armoured abdomen, spewing out torrents of fire in its wake…

It shattered.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Outside the World In-between_

_The Valley of End_

The messenger hawk the Hokage had sent had arrived a minute ago, dropping the small in Shikamaru's hand and then perching on one of the random spiked hairs of the Madara Uchiha statue. Shikaku was tending to his wife; the woman couldn't help the tender smile as her husband worried over her well-being. They didn't notice the bird fly over and leave the scroll for Shikamaru. Itachi was sitting on the ground with his legs cross, this time not in his Akatsuki robes but in his regular shinobi garb, his Mangekyo whirring in his sockets, searching for something he was not sure he would find.

Meanwhile Shikamaru was sitting on the ground, his logical mind trying to decipher the news Itachi had told him about the World In-between. His coal black eyes looked at the scroll and he swiped his blood onto the seal on it, allowing only him to access it. Inside the small scroll were two storage seals, one on top of the other, both were boldly drawn. The young genius noticed his parents were busy speaking to each other and Itachi was also straining his eyes, so he unsealed the first thing in the top storage seal.

A letter.

_To my little bro, Shika._

_I don't know how to tell you this so I'll start like this. I've been a ninja for a very long, I have seen things most people would wish they have never seen and I have done things that still scar my conscience, but what I have in common with every other ninja like me as, admittedly, experienced as I am is that we begin to develop a sense a danger for our inevitable end._

_I've been having this feeling since I returned from the west, that my end is coming. This is not something you'd like to hear, especially because I just came back home a few days ago, but it's the truth. You're a big boy now Shika, your much smarter than I could ever think you could be and I am and I would forever be proud of you, that's why I'm telling this to you first before mom and dad hear about it, because I trust you to break the news to them without breaking their hearts._

_Saying I'm a proud big brother is a big understatement, Shika. You're not the kid that used to be afraid of monsters under his bed anymore; you are that monster now, but to all your enemies. I've been writing this letter since I first came back, so if I sound disjointed then I apologize._

_By the time your reading this then the __**Chakra/Time Lock seal**__ connected to my chakra network has disabled and unsealed this letter, meaning that my chakra network has stopped 'operating' and we both know what that means. I wish I could have spent more time with you and mom and dad but I can only run from death for so long._

_Please, don't look for me, Shika. I want you to keep being the strength of the house and I'm certain you'll make a great clan head one day. I trust that title to you now. I also trust something else to you, it's called the __**Rinnegan**__. Its only one eye, the other one is with me, but even one eye holds great power, I felt it. It's my way of staying connected to you and the clan always. I'm not sure the full extents of its abilities but Jiraiya was the teacher of its former owner, you can learn from him, the Amekage if you ask nice enough or even by yourself, that is if you choose to use it. Whatever decision you choose, to destroy it or use it, I'm still satisfied that it's in right hands._

_Live your life Shika, that's my last wish._

_Forever your big brother,_

_Naruto._

_P.S. Don't think I just left you an eye and got killed off like a chump, little guy. I also left you everything I have in my bank vault. Yes, I have a vault; I paid good money for it. My banker has a document that says I willed all I have to you and another copy of it is with the Fire daimyo. Yes again, the Fire daimyo, just in case that banker tries to pull any tricks. I don't have any need for them where I'm going so use them wisely._

Shikamaru's arms went limp and dropped the letter. His already lowered heart sank even more as tears filled his eyes.

'_Big bro is dead…?'_ he thought slowly, his hands shaking at his sides and his wide eyes staring blankly at the ground. He clenched his eyes shut, forcing the traitorous tears to not fall. The young Nara's breathes came out in puffs as he stifled his wheezing cries by clamping his mouth shut. He finally opened his eyes and used his pointer and middle finger to stash the letter in his flak jacket, then unsealed the last item in the storage seal, a cylinder filled with a transparent liquid and a single purple ringed eye floating in the middle. His mouth was in a firm grim line as he stared at the godly eye, holding it in his hands for five minutes straight before he sealed it back into the storage seal and storing the scroll into his flak jacket again.

The fourteen year old boy slowly got to his feet, drawing his parents gaze to him, and they quirked their eyebrows when their son steadily approached them, his eyes lowered to the ground in what they recognized as defeat and a large dose of mourning. Shikamaru fell on his knees before his parents and he delivered the news to them.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_The World In-between_

'_Shit, shit, shit.'_ Obito cursed as he moved and dodged the fiery fingers of the assassin, each blast hitting the inside of the armour and breaking it outwards.

Naruto's chakra affinity was fire, much like his mother, and he also inherited some of his mother's attitude, while Shikamaru was water like their father and obviously took more after Shikaku than Naruto. Unlike most Nara men, Naruto was not cripplingly unmotivated and unambitious; the simple fact that he capitalized on his high IQ and genius to graduate from the academy at age eight and became a full jounin when he was eleven was testament to that fact.

The blonde-black assassin had mastered his fire affinity when he was a chunin, so much so that if he ever wanted to make full use of the affinity he didn't need to mediate for longer than half a minute. He could shroud his body with fire chakra, creating the thin black smoke wafting off his skin and adding specks of deep red to his sky blue eyes. Though fire wasn't the only nature transformation he had mastered in his long and successful shinobi career. Earth was the next he grasped, then lightning and finally water, but wind always gave him trouble so he stopped trying, mainly because his fire affinity could negate wind. During his time as a jounin of Konoha when he was younger he would say he was good at what he knew but after returning from the west and pitting against monstrous men and women who were moulded in the fires of centuries of war and death. Those of his home region, the east, were surprisingly lower than he thought. This realization came up after he defeated the Zombie brothers, two S ranks, without lifting a finger. There were people of note that gave him trouble to assassinate, like the red head named Nagato and the purple angel named Konan, but he always found a way to end their lives. One way or the other.

Obito slapped aside two stabbing fingers honing for his chest and drove his knee into the unprotected stomach of the assassin, who winced a little but swiped his left leg forward to trip the Uchiha. Obito rolled back as he fell and used his arms to flip over Naruto, who blasted another column of fire at him. The Susanno was rapidly disintegrating with each fire attack. Obito cracked his heel on the back of Naruto's neck, spinning after the attack and bashing the same heel on the side of Naruto's head, cursing under his breathe when Naruto dissolved into steam. He leaped up, dodging Naruto as he erupted from the ground, and drove a kunai he had summoned from a storage seal on his wrist, only to curse again when Naruto dispersed again. The Uchiha's lone sharingan was working on overtime to see through the mist, his panting echoed in the silence and his doujutsu warned him ahead of time to pull out the kunai from the ground and spin it in his fingers, deflecting dozens of other kunai that had been thrown at him straight from the ground. His free hand reached to the side and smacked up the blow intended to burn off his head, his foot jammed into Naruto's stomach, this time he didn't disperse so Obito used the split second to lift his leg and slam it under Naruto's chin.

Naruto flipped backwards after the last blow and flowed through a set of hand seals. _"Water release: Flash Flood."_ And as the jutsu did just that; one moment there was nothing but thin mist in the air and then the next water was splashing towards him from Naruto.

"_Amaterasu."_ The Uchiha said and black fire quickly evaporated the water, though Obito had to cross his arms as Naruto's smoking foot planted on his arms. The Nara dropped six more kicks before gravity took effect and dropped him to the ground, only for Naruto to swipe a punch to his face aside with his left forearm and drive his right palm in the very centre of the Uchiha's chest. The result was Obito flying backwards, his back smashing through his Susanno and shattering it like glass, and landing in a heap yards away. He rolled aside when Naruto landed on his position with a savage stomp, aiming for his head, flipped onto his feet. The hole in his chest throbbed painfully, even more so as he spun away and blocked the unrelenting attacks from Naruto. He was panting for air as his arms and legs blocked and attempted counters, only for those counters to bite back at him and leave openings for Naruto to capitalize on. _"Amatera-"_ an elbow smashed against his jaw, flinging him aside. He rolled multiple times and spun back to his feet, stumbling backwards as he said. _"Amat-"_ he was again broken off when Naruto shot two columns of fire at him. _"Am-"_ two hands clasped on his shoulders from behind and Obito yelled in pain as two knees were driven into his lower back.

The hands released him, letting him stumble away again. His Mangekyo was trembling but he couldn't stay on that fact because two hot fingers jammed into his shoulder blades, one on each shoulder blade. Those two increased to four and jabbed his kidneys. Those four increased to six and stabbed his spin. Then those four went up to eight and burnt off his kneecaps from behind, letting him fall onto the ground in a weak heap. Naruto kicked the Uchiha onto his back and grabbed a fist full of his shirt, yanking his body up and shaking him when he noticed that Obito was going into terrible shock from all those pressure point attacks.

Obito felt his second Mangekyo die in his eyes but unlike the first eye the sharingan only faded back into his normal coal black eyes, leaving him to stare into the red-blue eyes of the assassin.

"You've lost Obito, now take us back."

A small, tired smile came to the Uchiha and he chuckled, coming out as wheezing. "I haven't lost, Naruto. You have." He whispered, the profuse bleeding of his pressure points and the holes in his torso finally getting to him.

"This isn't a game Obito-"

"Your right, this isn't a game." The defeated Uchiha cut in with a large, crazed grin. "This is a story, and I'm the hero!"

"What the hell are you talking about? Take us back home now!" Naruto roared.

"No longer will your illusion hold the world hostage. No longer will people be prisoners to your will. I have freed the world from the Night!" Obito screamed, cackling like a mad person. "I am the hero of this story and I have vanquished you for good!"

Naruto clenched his fist and slammed it against Obito's laughing face; this silenced the Uchiha for a brief moment, only letting quiet, sputtering chuckles to escape his mouth. "You've gone mad, Obito."

"No I haven't. I have never been so clear sighted in my life. The world will not remember me but I will be cemented in the skies as the man that ended the reign of the Night." Obito's head lolled weakly and his eyes began to close. "You will never hurt the world again, Night, because you will never return. I…have…saved…everyone…" he said in a quiet voice.

At hearing this Naruto huffed and held back from breaking the Uchiha's neck. "What do you mean I will never return?! What have you done!? Tell me!"

The dying man laughed faintly, his one open eye looking into the red-blues of Naruto. "The moment I took you… here…you were taken out of the time stream of the elemental nations…to the time stream of all the universes…connected together in a central…hub…the…World In-between…a place only I can access with…my eyes…once we got here…we can never return back home…" Obito grinned, his red painted teeth clenched and fully exposed as he whispered. "…never…" his chuckle became a low hum when he felt Naruto's hand shake with unbridled fury. "I told you…Night…I am the hero…of …this…story…" his eye slowly closed and the severe blood loss finally ended his life.

Naruto panted and huffed as his fist hovered over Obito's dead face, his eyes on fire. Until Obito's body slowly dissolved into nothing, leaving his hand in specks of floating dust before that too went. The blonde-black haired man fell onto his knees as he stopped channelling fire affinity, returning his eyes back to normal.

Never.

The ground cracked under him and so did the featureless sky as the one person holding the entire landscape corporal died, leaving Naruto to fall into a void of empty blackness, staring with empty, dead eyes, at the featureless sky, breaking apart and leaving him, Naruto, to float through inky black nothing.

**Authors note**

**The end**

_**Mangekyo sharingan: Kamui: The World In-between**__**: this is a forbidden sharingan jutsu that transports the owner of the doujutsu and his intended target or targets to the hub point of all the universes, like all quintillion of the universes (anime or not) are in some way connected to the World In-between. This means that the world is not corporal until a person with special traits, like an Uchiha with full control of his Mangekyo sharingan or a rinnegan holder, is able to enter here and thereby make it corporal, or in other words **__**physical**__**. The world is therefore **__**not**__** a creation of Obito but rather the culmination of notes Madara has been taking on how to step into 'World In-between' as he is using the kamui, that is, the world between his original location and his intended destination. Madara was not able to live long enough to test this idea but Obito, on his first attempt, used it on Naruto, thus removing both of them from the 'Narutoverse' forever, that is why the **__**Chakra/Time Lock**__** seal went off immediately Naruto disappeared with Obito. It is not known why people are not able to return to their universe of origin (yes, 'people' and yes again 'universe of origin' meaning other people in other universes can use it) but Obito suspected that he couldn't return because first his left Mangekyo burnt up and second he was in a desperate situation (wouldn't you if you were fighting Naruto?). Lastly, the reason Obito's body disintegrated into dust after he died, or his chakra reserves dried up, is the final sacrifice the world would take from the user after it is used, like losing his left eye.**_

**The reason no one has ever been documented on using this jutsu should be obvious. They never came back to tell the tale.**

**Phew, that was a long one; I just needed to iron that out because I couldn't find a place to put it in the story. My bad.**

**So I'm debating with myself (yes, I do that; it's hard to explain) on whether or not to write an epilogue for this story. I know, I know; I said this was going to be the last chapter; I'm just throwing that thought out there. Let me know in the reviews, if you don't hate me too much, if you want to see what happens after the dust has settled both to Shikamaru (and his family) and Naruto.**

**How have I been doing with this story up to this point? I really like to know. Kindly tell me in the reviews your thoughts, opinions, criticisms and anything else really (just don't flame). Don't forget to review on whether or not you want an epilogue or I should just move on to another story and forget this one.**

**Stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you :)**

**Foy.**


	8. Chapter 8

**What can I say? I don't like being predictable, and a predictable ending for this story is Naruto returning and everything is right with the world, AKA and they all lived happily ever after. C'mon guys…you can't honestly expect me to end all of my stories like that. I need to spice it up, keep my readers on their toes. So, I have no regrets ending the story like that ;)**

**I wrote this epilogue **_**immediately**_** after writing the last chapter because I knew, **_**I just knew**_**, that that last chapter would get more than a few people pissed. And it did! Its kinda funny, to be honest. I planned on releasing this on my next update day but I couldn't help myself.**

**This is a crossover with Overlord (I do not own). I usually won't say that but I'm saying it because of those reading this that haven't read or watched Overlord. You can keep reading when it comes around to Naruto, since Shika is still within his own universe, but I don't want to confuse anyone not familiar with those names. I didn't throw around complicated words or anything you guys won't understand, I'm just saying.**

**This is more like chapter eight but I'll just call it an epilogue.**

**EPILOGUE**

**What happened to the Night?**

_Location: Unknown_

He could feel wind thrash around him.

'_How long have I been falling?'_

'_Where am I?'_

'_What's that noise?'_

Thoughts slowly churned in his sleepy mind but no answers came. Naruto closed his eyes and whined under his breathe as he clamped both hands over his ears; if felt like he had been drifting through the vacuum of darkness for a thousand years and a day, but with only a second passing at the very same time. It was a disorientating feeling, even for the hunter ninja, as he curled up in a foetal position and seduced sleep back to him, his only solitude in the silence and emptiness of the dark, where he would see his family again.

Family…

Never…

His clothes flapped as the air heated up slightly, making the already sleepy Nara man groan, and instinctively turn in the air, belly facing the ground and arms and legs spread apart to slow him down, and his bright blue eyes beheld the chaos of fights occurring below him.

An insect-like girl, or what he thought looked like a girl, was using an extremely long weapon to whip around two other females. The Nara's eyes furrowed and his face turned neutral as he kept observing the fight, many miles above it and falling down from the sky like a light stone.

The moon shone above him, and the rays gave him a bit more light, enough for his veteran eyes to see what exactly was going on. The insect girl was winning; throwing around bugs and insects at the other two girls, one slimly built with a blue ribbon around her forehead and the other was a behemoth of rippling muscles heaving what looked like a battle axe or a war hammer, he wasn't sure. This was done so tactfully that Naruto mentally applauded the girl, only for his mind to freeze when he saw the slim girl do something, a last ditch attack that would hopefully save her and her muscled friend.

The girl ducked into her shadow and resurfaced close to the insect girl, not too close or even too quickly, if Naruto was going to be honest, but it threw him in a loop; the girl could use shadow manipulation. His eyes narrowed when the insect girl slashed the slim shadow user, casting her against a building and breaking the wall.

Just then a crystalline sword came down from out of nowhere and stabbed into the ground, a figure flickered into sight and Naruto tried to suppress his smirk when he saw that the girl was wearing a newer, never seen before, version of a hunter ninja mask. It brought back warm memories of his comrades back in the Konoha Hunter Ninja Corps. He had declined Captain of the Corps so many times but the Sandaime had thrust the position of deputy captain onto him, as a 'friendly order'. Naruto felt his stomach clench and, like a small explosion, shadows sputtered and flickered around him, briefly shading the moons light but it was passed off as a cloud passing over the moon. Naruto mentally fist pumped himself when his cloak manifested around his body, fully intact.

His attention was again drawn back to the fighters beneath him; now the hunter ninja masked girl was using strange abilities to thrash the insect girl, crushing the latter into a heap of breathing limbs, all with the help of the shadow manipulator and the large woman. The air stilled dramatically and the masked girl took a step back unintentionally, long since jumped off her crystal blade, and clenched her fists when another masked man swished into the area. He was in a pinstriped suit, very tall from what he could see and in a mask that was painted white but with the facial appearance of a sinister gentleman from the Iwa daimyos court, smiling evilly with his eyes curved up in glee.

It was a hunter ninja mask he had seen on one occasion from a Kiri hunter.

The ground was getting closer so Naruto slightly opened his cloak, gliding down safely and touching down with the silence of a ghost. As his toes touched the ground he melted into the ground in the shadow of a chunk of earth and his presence disappeared as well, even as the masked man sharply looked in his direction before he proceeded to using similar strange abilities to fight the masked girl. It was obvious that he was superior in skill to the girl and Naruto decided to leave because it wasn't his fight.

As he turned to investigate the new place he had been dropped in he felt a pulse in the shadows and his eyebrows shot into his hairline as the same shadow manipulator leaped out of a shadow directly in front of the new masked man, her eyes narrowed in focus and her right hand carving a path forward, tightened in a fist. This was stopped when the masked man grabbed her by the neck, bashed his forehead against hers, drove his knee into her belly and stabbed his segmented tail into the girl's abdomen numerous times.

Naruto closed his eyes in frustration and sighed.

"_Family is family."_ The words of his father echoed to him. A memory of when Naruto was five and playing checkers with Shikaku, under the watchful gaze of the other clan members.

'_Family is family. Damn it, dad…'_ Naruto thought as his shoulders slumped, gritting his teeth when he heard the female shadow user smash back into the stone walls beside his muscled friend, who was long since unconscious with severe burns from a 'magic' fire attack.

She was a shadow user and that meant that she was family.

Evileye panted as she held her broken ribs, one eye open under mask and glaring at the smug suited man. "Who are you…?"

"I am the-"

His words ended when he felt a massive, crippling weight drop in the surrounding. It took all in his power to maintain composure but he couldn't stop the cold sweat falling down the side of his head. Three feet in front of Evileye rose a blonde with black tipped haired man, looking down to the ground and his mouth set in a straight line. The man that had risen from a shadow was in a black cloak, covering his neck and his shins but leaving his black sandals exposed. The man's shaggy hair hid his eyes, even casting a shadow close to the bridge of his nose, and this made the servant of Nazarick even more cautious. He saw a twinkle in the darkness where his eyes were and a pair of the bluest eyes he had ever seen in all his life opened and it was like an explosion of invisible energy shook the very earth, only pushing against him but saving Evileye from the brunt of it.

"I know this isn't my fight," Naruto began slowly, loud enough for Demiurge to hear him and deep enough to send violent tremors down his spine. The Nara cocked his head to the unconscious bodies of the two girls and two shadows dutifully slithered out of the ground and began attending to them, he looked over his shoulder at Evileye and a clone gently clasped a hand on her shoulder, startling her, and slowly pulled her back a few steps. She didn't have control over her limbs as she moved backwards with the clone. "But I was passing by and I noticed you were attacking a member of my clan," Demiurge could not move, not even to gulp, as Naruto looked back to the ground and continued speaking. "I will probably regret this, stranger, but…" he said with another deep sigh, before his eyes snapped up to Demiurge and the man finally beheld Naruto's whole face. Dark, heavy shadows surrounded his eyes and cast down his pale cheeks. The scene was all the more chilling when Naruto tilted his chin up slightly and the servant of Ainz Ooal Gown felt a hand on his left shoulder, and a blade to his neck. "Trouble and stress is my destiny, I guess." And the clone dragged the blade back, slashing a deep line through the masked man's neck and finishing it off by pushing off the assassinated man's head off his shoulders.

All the while the black Adamantite knight, Momon, and the Beautiful Princess, Nabe, watched in the thicket with wide eyes as Demiurge was killed.

They felt the killer intent that shadowy man had let loose and the simple fact that it was palpable made them both curious and cautious. Momon, who was actually Ainz Ooal Gown in disguise, began whispering orders to his battle maid servant posing as a magic using adventurer alongside him.

"I want you to find out all you can about him. You can ask your sisters for help but I want to know who that is as soon as possible." Watching as Naruto regarded the much shorter Evileye for a brief moment before he passed her, allowing her shadow to return back to normal and only passively paying attention to the quiet thanks she was telling him as she trailed after him. Naruto knelt down beside his clone, ordering it to return to where it came from and smiled warmly when Tia opened her eyes to look up at her saviour, her groggy mind trying to understand why she couldn't see past the shadows covering Naruto's eyes, thrown over his face by his shaggy hair. He placed his pointer finger on his lips to tell her to keep quiet before he, Tia, Gargaran and Evileye were dragged into the small pool of darkness beneath them.

**One Week Later**

_Konohagakure no Sato_

Shikamaru hummed and scratched his chin, briefly looking up to his opponent to see if he could spot any weakness in her posture. A quick smirk flashed on his face and he moved the pawn on his furthest right twice. He sat back with a mildly smug look on his face and observed the blonde girl grumble under her breathe.

"Shika, I don't want to play chess." Suzu whined pitifully. Her ears drooping and her large eyes becoming even larger as she hit Shikamaru with the full brunt of her dreaded puppy eyes.

The genius rolled his eye, reached over the board and poked her forehead, making her pouted even more. "You need to work on your strategy, Suzu. Lady Fifth asked me to teach you and that is what I'll do."

"But-but I'm a practical learner, you know that!" she shouted in outrage, crossing her arms like a child.

"…Fine, we'll spar. Are you happy?"

"Yes." Was the reply and it was accompanied with a large, toothy grin as she tilted the board to the ground, throwing off each chess piece and making the lazy Nara grumble, especially when his mother peaked her head out of the front door and gave him the 'you're going to pick those up by yourself because you're my son and she's a guest' look accompanied with a crack of her knuckles that made the sleepy genius gulp. The girl crossed her legs and placed her elbow on her knee, perching her head in the palm of her hand. She stared at her Nara friend, making Shikamaru raise an eyebrow, until she asked. "How's the eye?"

He scratched his chin and became more aware of the black eye patch over his left eye. "I'm still trying to get used to perfect chakra control." She motioned for him to go on and he shrugged. "I need to keep it covered or else it'll drain my chakra; Konan-sensei sent a letter yesterday and said that it would do that until it gets used to my chakra and adapts with it. She said I can visit Rain when I'm ready for formal lessons but I'm not sure how Asuma-sensei would take it, or even mom and dad when they hear about it. Plus…" he leaned to her conspiratorially and whispered. "I think Konan-sensei eats guys…I'm getting this vibe from her." The sleepy fourteen year old smirked when the Kyuubi holder giggled into her hands and sat back again.

"Can I have a peak?" she abruptly asked when she calmed down and Shikamaru face palmed.

"I just told you that it takes a toll on me if I leave it exposed for too long."

"Just a quick look, I promise."

"Fine." he grunted and slowly unslung the eye patch, making sure to close his left eye as he dropped it on the empty chess board before them. The boy took in a deep breathe and as he released it he opened his left eye.

Tsunade had said that the rinnegan had mutated when it came in contact with his Nara bloodline, alongside his chakra and his chakra network but the latter of the two were much slower than the first. Instead of purple being the colour of the 'whites' it was black and the concentric rings from the iris to the socket were purple, the purple was both noticeable and made the godly eye more intimidating. After the implant surgery he could feel many things change in his body, slow changes that he was still trying to adapt to, like his muscles were strengthening and anytime he watched a jutsu being performed with the eye he got an deep understanding for how it worked, thus making it easier to store in his brain. He could also see chakra networks but that became tiring when he tried to read, with all the wisps of chakra floating in the air, so he covered the rinnegan with a seal reinforced eye patch that covered the constant burst of chakra from his eye that he was unable to control. The eye patch made sure no one could sense he had an implanted doujutsu; now he knew how Kakashi felt.

He closed his eye and covered it back up with his eye patch, scoffing slightly at the starry gaze his friend was giving him. "Words…cannot express how cool that looks."

"Well it's not easy constantly trying not to will something to blow up, but thanks." It came steadily, but he _felt_ that the eyes were able to create flying bombs, or missiles, if he wanted to. Covered eye or not. Suzu twiddled her fingers silently and looked at the black haired boy. "Yes?"

"Have…have…they found Naruto's…body yet…?" Shikamaru noticed how she dropped the affectionate 'Old man' title and called him by his name. The boy put on a brave smile and shook his head. "Are you ok? If you need anything-"

"I know." He said, his smile wobbled. "You here for me, thank you…again."

The girl stood up and walked around the table between them, pulling her friend into a tight hug. The young Nara allowed the girl to hold him, silent and his eyes looking to the ground with his eyebrows furrowed. He chuckled in amusement when the Kyuubi jinchuriki smacked a wet kiss on the top of his head. She had seen it in several 'Madam Kazahana' movies when the man was depressed then a kiss from his lady friend would pull him out of it. She hadn't used it before but from her first try she could say that it was a success.

"What was that for?" he said and the girl gave him a large, cheesy smile.

"I thought I saw some ramen in your hair."

The genius shook his head disbelievingly and allowed the girl to drag him onto his feet. He let the kiss slid and changed the subject, much to the girl's frustration. "Did you accept Jiraiya's apprenticeship? He did say he'll teach you how to better use Kyuubi."

"Nope, I don't trust guys in wooden sandals." Both teens shivered and shook off their hands when they trembled. Shika wordlessly agreed with her. "I'll stick with those I already have. I'll learn the rest by myself if I have to." She stood and watched as Shikamaru bent on one knee in front of her. She could feel her heart beat increase and her face flushed an embarrassing shade of red. Suzu almost died when the Nara reached into his pocket and slowly pulled his hand out, only for her jaw to drop when the boy removed the transparent leather bag and began picking up the chess pieces on the ground, all the while sending her a sly smirk. The flustered girl shared his diverted smirk and pointed a finger at Shikamaru, who was still on his knee picking up chess pieces. "Two can play at that game."

"What was that?" Shika asked sharply, a knowing smile on his face that increased when his Kyuubi holding friend smiled toothily at him.

"Oh nothing." She picked up her sheathed blade and perched the heavy one edged weapon on her right shoulder. "How about that strategy spar?"

Shika dropped the bag of pieces onto the chessboard and walked towards the clan's training ground together.

He was still going through a comprehensive list of the things in the vault, sent by Naruto's banker. The young Nara had seen the contents of the fairly large metal vault and, besides the money stashed in multiple safes lining the left side of the room, there were several notes Naruto had written on potential new Hiden art jutsu and assassination techniques, breaking down other jutsu and documenting his shadow campaign in the West neatly stacked around the vault, even labelled. There were souvenirs from the west like the armour of a centaur, the iron, fan-like wings of a fairy, and many more. The last things, to note, that Naruto willed to his younger brother was a summoning contract for five hundred of the shadows he had collected in all his years as a shinobi, also allowing Shika to collect more if he wanted.

It made the younger brother to the famed assassin feel a great warmth in his heart that his older brother, the person he strove to grow up to be, trusted him with all he owned. Shikamaru just needed time to sift through it all, thankfully Naruto's banker, who was now _his_ banker, had keyed Shikamaru's blood, chakra and retina to the security system of the bank vault Naruto had paid 'good' money for. That way the boy could walk into the bank, ask to be taken to the Nara clans section of the bank and allowed into Naruto's-Shikamaru's vault.

Naruto was proud of his younger brother, Shika knew that, but the teen had now made it his ambition to make his brother even more proud.

Suzu bumped her shoulder against the pensive Nara and cocked an eyebrow. "What's on your mind, Shika?"

"Do you think big bro Naruto is happy…?" the girl smiled warmly at him and threw her arm over his shoulder in a friendly gesture she was known to show. Shikaku and Yoshino had explained what a _Chakra/Time Lock seal_ was and what happened as soon as the object inside was unsealed; the user's chakra had stopped flowing because the seal was tied to the user's chakra network. It was the hardest thing in the world for the two parents to both explain and accept that their oldest son was dead; the proof was the last fuinjutsu seal Naruto used.

Naruto's burial ceremony had been a few days ago, and empty casket burial because they still couldn't find his body, and everyone he had affected, both in and outside of Konoha, attended to pay their respects to the dead hunter ninja of the Nara clan.

Konoha's Night.

Those that came to tell Naruto their last goodbyes had to stay at the gate for a little while, seeing as their numbers would have easily packed the graveyard and spilled out to most of Konoha; Naruto had many allies across the continent. While his family, his clan and his close friends were allowed in for the ceremony. After that the people were let in to console the grieving family of the Night as well as see his grave, to wish him happiness wherever he was. It was a very hard affair for Shikamaru but his friends had been there for him. If not for them, and the blessing of his dead brother, Shikamaru would have fallen into crippling depression. Suzuyi Uzumaki made sure her friend never had the time to be sad.

"I'm sure he's very happy, Shika."

_Tsuruji Countryside_

_Re-Esteze Kingdom_

Naruto was happy…somewhat.

The Nara adjusted the straw hat on his head and made sure his thick brown gloves were on well before he turned back to the small house behind him and shouted through the door. "I'm going to sell some of my tea leaves in the market. Let's go." He squinted up at the sun as he scratched his chin, still very curious about the place he had encountered. His attire hadn't changed much; long sleeved black shirt and pants with sandals besides that he didn't wear his black cloak anymore but kept the summons of about five hundred shadows sealed in his eye patch. The black eye patch he wore over his right eye to cover his new doujutsu. Naruto had heard from Tsunade that even though the eyes were connected to the brain by nerves they could be replaced by a simple procedure as long as it was done right; pulling the eye out and placing in the new one while constantly using chakra to both sever the old one and connect the new one. Naruto had done this a day after arriving, making sure that Tia and Gargaran had overeaten so they could sleep like logs, allowing him to sneak away, draw suppressing seals on the ground with his shadow and perform the self-surgery.

The house behind him was made out of earth and wood. It only had two small bedrooms, no bathroom and an outdoor kitchen. There was a humble garden at the side of the house where Naruto grew tea leaves, boosted by the growth spells the girl named Evileye used on them every once in a while in an obvious attempt at impressing him. The building was just a temporary place Tia and Gargaran were kept to heal of their wounds, sped up by potions and the limited medical ninjutsu Naruto was able to use, an ability that marvelled the fellow ninjutsu user. Naruto decided to sleep outside out of respect for the girls.

The assassin had chosen to stay in the countryside because the air was fresh and rejuvenating, like it should always be, and this helped with the healing process.

That morning, about four hours after sunrise, Gargaran had left for the royal palace to report to the leader of the group, who he was yet to meet for some strange reason, while Tia had chosen to stay behind to 'observe' the other shadow user, notwithstanding the fact that she was still yet to fully heal of her wounds.

He also found out that she had a twin, an _identical_ twin to be exact. Who also just so happened to be a shadow user as well.

"Why do _I_ have to go, Old man?" called Tia from inside. The younger shadow manipulator stepped out of the house in her usual garb but with the difference of white bandages wrapped around her torso and on her forehead, the blue ribbon was tied on top of it.

Naruto smiled at the familiar name, hefted the basket of leaves up and tossed it to her, which she caught with a low grunt. "You need to get out more. Holing yourself her forever isn't healthy." He pointed out. "And your sister said she didn't trust me to be alone with you so she wants you to stay with her in the capital."

Tina was a very talkative girl. Naruto could guess that there was little to nothing she could keep secret. She reminded him of Shika, always marching into his room to talk to him about one thing or the other.

Naruto didn't really mind; his first priority was understanding the new world he was in, the second was living an easy, stress free life, as much as his destiny would allow, that is. Tia slung the basket in her elbow and walked behind Naruto towards the stone road that led to the kingdoms capital, where Naruto flagged down a passing caravan. He shushed the girl behind him as he looked up to the owner of the caravan. "Can we please accompany you to the capital? She'll pay." He said as he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder to the girl lugging the basket behind him. Naruto still didn't have any money on him; he left it all for his younger brother. No regrets.

"Hop on, stranger." the man nodded to the back of the caravan. Naruto helped the younger girl in when she found it difficult to walk up the steps without irritating the healing holes on her abdomen under the bandages. Both assassins noticed that the man was a ceramics merchant, but they didn't dwell on that fact for too long.

An hour later of casual conversation with the trader and they were dropped off in the kingdoms gate, where Tia showed the gatekeeper her Adamantite badge to allow them passage as well as a promise to get Naruto an identity card, or at least a passport.

"Do you want to be an adventurer?" Tia asked out of the blue as they proceeded to a vegetable merchant so Naruto could haggle with him on the price for all his tea leaves.

"No." was the quick reply as he scanned the market.

"Why?" she hurried after him as he moved to the vegetables and fruits section of the vast market.

"Too much work." He eyed the traders there and when a few caught sight of him, seeing him with a girl holding a basket of leaves that immediately assumed he wanted to sell them, and that Tia was his servant but that was kept more to themselves as they waved for his attention.

"What do you plan to do then?" she drew his attention back to her by tugging his sleeve. Looking back on it, he made the right decision to not use his shadow cloak; it would attract too much attention and that was the very last thing he wanted or needed.

"Farm." It was a dream of his to own a small farm to grow crops for personal needs and to sell, but the latter was not too important to him seeing as he had accounted for using his retirement money to sustain himself. At the moment, in this new world, he was poor, that was the painful, brutal truth, so it was either he sold crops or became an adventurer. Being a ninja with his skill set was hard enough, making him the one his clan mates looked up to and mounted pressure on his shoulders. The Nara had even planned to retire when he was thirty. He wanted to blame it on his male Nara genes that made him lazy for strenuous, life endangering activities but deep down he knew he lost the interest of being a ninja when he found no opponent strong enough to fully challenge him. His later years in the west showed him that and the death of the Zero tailed beast cemented it.

"Isn't that worse?" Naruto found a trader he was interested in selling to and walked to him.

"I'm not attacking or being attacked. That's good enough for me." he took the basket from her and placed before the merchant. The man eyed the basket and called his price, Naruto looked at Tia from the corner of his eye to gauge her thoughts on the numbers called, seeing as he was still grasping the new currency and its value, and when he saw her frown slightly he pushed up the price. After five minutes of back and forth between Naruto and the trader they finally agreed on the price, exchanged money for leaves and parted, leaving a promise to return with more next week.

It was a somewhat happy affair for Naruto being in a new world. He missed his family and his friends but he was getting a chance to start over again. His rinnegan right eye negated that thought when he became aware of his eye patch; it had mutated like Shikamaru's and he could _feel_ the potent power flowing through the eye and his body. He didn't know why he had the eye implanted instead of destroying it, not completely, but it was even more reason to not become an adventurer. The main reason he had the eye implant was so that he didn't trust the rinnegan to be forever sealed his Night Dimension without slowly destroying the place, freeing all the shadows and that he also didn't think any other storage seal was able to hold the godly eye for an extended amount of time, like he guess the time limit for the _Chakra/Time Lock seal_ was two days, it was why he saved sealing the eye until the feeling of impending doom was almost too much to bear, that is, when his family had been kidnapped. A clone was sent to Tsunade's office to drop off the eye and did so without her detecting it; he trusted the Godaime to send the letter to Shika after seeing its importance. Back to his own eye, having it in his socket at all times gave him time to monitor it at all times, the body and chakra augmentations were an unexpected side effect and even more reason becoming an adventurer would make him overpowered.

Naruto instinctively looked up at the sun, making sure his straw hat was still firmly placed on his head, when he heard his name being called from behind him. It was midday. He looked down, stashing his money into his pants pocket, and waited for the other members of the Blue Rose to approach, led by Lakyus Aindra the leader of the Adamantite group, alongside Climb, the personal guard to the princess of the kingdom and Brain, a close associate to Climb. The deadly assassin smiled welcomingly and said to them.

"Yo."

Evileye replied to the greeting. "Hello, Lord Naruto." And ushered the tall Nara to a tavern so that their group could talk. No one missed the way the magic user had addressed Naruto. It had been going on since he had saved Tia, Gargaran and Evileye's lives a week ago. The muscled woman teased the petite masked girl about her not so subtle crush on the superior shadow user and Evileye didn't deny it. When the Blue Rose was assembled for a meeting concerning the Eight Fingers and Naruto's name was brought up, the very first thing Evileye would talk about when she was asked for her thoughts on taking them down was on the sheer amazingness that was Naruto. The short girl had even taken it upon herself to visit Naruto every day and stay for as long as possible. She didn't know it was deep infatuation when she had caught herself thinking of leaving the Blue Rose and living with Naruto on the farm he constantly talked about.

Lakyus, though very much unaware of Evileye's intentions, which would come into fruition if Naruto agreed to have her, had her suspicions of Naruto. It was to be expected; a man that controlled shadows like the sun could shine light on the earth seemingly appeared out of nowhere, released a foreboding feeling so heavy it was enough to shake up Evileye and saved her friends with his only reason being that Tia was his clan mate, when she knew very well that Tia and Tina were among the last of their clan. The feeling was made even worse when Naruto declined to be paid for saving her friends, saying that he wouldn't take money for helping family. The only reason Lakyus had even allowed Naruto to take care of Gargaran and Tia was that Evileye was visiting constantly. And also that Tia insisted that she wanted to stay with Naruto for the time being.

Their intentions were plain as day, even to Naruto; they just wanted to see if he was on their side. Telling them his life history was going to be a bonus.

He already had an answer ready.

Naruto sat down with a huff and placed his straw hat on the table before him, raising his finger for the attention of the waitress and requesting for a cup of water, the others ordered for beer. He got comfortable in his chair and silently looked to the leader of the Blue Rose. "You have questions."

"Yes, I do. First off, who are you and where are you from?"

"My name is Naruto Nara of the Nara clan and I'm from…a faraway land, you won't know it." Tia and Tina both narrowed their eyes when they heard him say he was from the Nara clan and Naruto added. "My clan specialize in shadow use and manipulation. My father always told me that even if there is a shadow user that does not bear the Nara clan name he or she is still family, enemy or not. I should remember that. Tia and Tina here," he tilted his head towards the two, who were slowly letting down their guard. "Are family."

Lakyus hummed and pointed at his eye patch. "What happened to your eye?" it looked like a random question but his answer, whether he chose to answer it or not, depended on if he was to remain suspicious or not. The leader of the group was good at catching subtle body language.

"That, dear friend," Naruto began as he leaned forward, perching his elbows on the table and nodding his thanks when he got his order of water. "Is none of your business." He flashed a smile at them and drank down his water as his eye wandered to a group of noisy, young adventurers trooping in and demanding for a higher class mission.

Lakyus glared slightly at him, not intimidated by his smile, but was stopped when Evileye chose to speak. "That…feeling…when you saved us…what was that? It wasn't magic, I would know, and it wasn't ninjutsu."

Everyone paid attention when Naruto scratched the back of his head. "That was my killer intent. I guess I used a bit too much huh."

They were all taken aback by his response, even Climb and Brain that had experienced Sebas' killer intent, to an extent. At that time they weren't sure what to call it but now the name 'Killer Intent' fit it perfectly.

"You mean you can increase it?" Climb said with a small stutter. Evileye was very descriptive about that night. In her own words she said that before the 'feeling' had gone, it felt like she had been dropped into inky black darkness and cursed for a lifetime with a heavy, cold weight pressing down on all sides of her body and soul, constricting her airways but before she could get multiple glimpses of her death at the hands of a demon of the night the 'feeling' was gone. Naruto focused it all on his opponent and she could only guess that before his throat was slit he had seen over a hundred ways of dying in the dark, each one scarier and worse than the last.

"I can, but I'd preferably not do that." Naruto's eye lowered at the memory of him using killer intent on Obito as a child. "I found out that my KI has terrible, negative effects on the psyche. I lost a friend to insanity because of it and I would rather not lose one again." That seemed to lessen Lakyus' doubts about Naruto. The sincerity in his voice and the deep mourning in Naruto's eye…

It was enough to make her regret distrusting him.

If Naruto ever had another reason for implanting his rinnegan right eye, it was that he wanted to have a constant reminder of his home with him at all times. Now, after having it in his eye, he realized the advantages; he could _feel_ the other eye and that also meant he could _feel_ his younger brother, Shikamaru, to a much lesser extent.

It gave the prominent Nara assassin hope that he could return back home, if he found a way to pull on the connection even more. The sharingan could do it, why not the rinnegan? He just needed to find a way to truly understand the godly doujutsu. Initially he had given Shika only one eye because having both eyes would be too much strain on the younger boy, keeping the other eye so he could die with it, but seeing as both he and his brother had the same doujutsu from the same former user it would most definitely be connected with each other.

Even if it was going to take him his whole life he would find a way back home.

Meanwhile in Nazarick, the undead ruler of the great tomb mused on the little Nabe had been able to gather. The magic user had reported that Naruto was still a very much big enigma to her but she was able to sense that the power he had welled up in him was so much it levelled with Ainz's right hand woman, Albedo, if not much, much, _**much**_ stronger. And this was only before the implant of the rinnegan eye, but Narberal Gamma, also known as Nabe, didn't know about that.

"Do you think he will pose a problem to my ambitions?" Ainz asked in a deep voice, his right eye hole flashed briefly as he added. "Your honest thoughts, please."

"He comes off as a friendly person, my lord. I do not think he will _actively_ impede your plans for the great tomb of Nazarick."

The skeleton hummed and placed his right fist under his chin, perched on the armrest of his great throne. "If that is the case…I want you to befriend him. I will do so as well under my Momon disguise."

The battle maid barely suppressed her snarl. "Befriend him? A _filthy __**human**_?" she hissed in watered down disgust.

"No." Ainz replied as he stood up slowly, making the maid shuffle backwards on her knees and lower her head even more. The ruler of the tomb spoke in a great voice, addressing the gathered guardians of the floors of the tomb, the winged heteromorphic that stood silently by the side of his throne and the maids stationed at the walls of the throne room. Each guardian, Sebas included, were one knee before the great ruler of the tomb, the maids knelt at the walls. The level of importance in his words were not lost to him. "If he holds as much power as you say, then he is not human."

"What is he then, my lord Ainz?" the resurrected and very salty Demiurge asked, Entoma quirked up when the bespectacled man had voiced her thoughts. The great hall was deathly silent as Ainz Ooal Gown, ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, spoke.

"I fear he is…" he began. "…A godkin."

**Authors note**

**Is this the end of a story…or the beginning…?**

**For me, it's the end ;)**

**Well that's the end of this story. See? If y'all kept down your pitch forks you would have seen what really happened to Naruto; he's a family guy (HA) so he would do anything he can to get back to his family, all of it centred on his rinnegan eye. Shikamaru has one too. If I ever write a second part for this story, and that's a big **_**if**_**, then yeah, we'll see if Naruto can get himself back home.**

**Why did I choose Overlord? I like the manga. My other options would have been One Punch Man (I don't own), Tokyo Ghoul (I don't own) or Darwin's Game (I don't own), among others. I mean, I've still got a lot more Naruto's story ideas before I move onto crossovers and other fandoms entirely. My friends give me lots of ideas so I can't take all the credit. But still, is anyone interested in reading a One Punch Man crossover story with Naruto? Or even a Boku no Hero crossover? I have a queue of stories I plan to publish already but if there is popular demand then sure, I can have a story jump the queue.**

**Back to **_**this**_** story.**

**Do you think Momon would keep to his word in befriending Naruto or is it just a guise so he can get close to Naruto and stab him in the back? Do you think Naruto is strong enough to be a godkin, **_**especially**_** with his rinnegan eye? (I mean, even if you don't know what 'godkin' means you can guess from the name…'godkin') Is Shika going to be badass? Personally…most likely.**

**Is Naruto ever going to have some peace and quiet in his life?**

**Please, let me know in the reviews. See you when I see you.**

**Foy.**


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